A Super Smash Story
by Kay dOuble-O Zii
Summary: Pikachu's life starts out like any other baby rat - except she's a pikachu. Cast out of the family, she wanders astray onto the metaphoric path of destiny with no clue what the future has in store for her. Planning to be way over 15 chapters, so watch out
1. Once Upon an Outlet

**A Super Smash Story**

All characters mentioned are from Nintendo, EXCEPT Uncle Tally, midwife, and the mom.

Characters are based from the very first Super Smash.

**Chapter 1: Once Upon an Outlet**

I am a sister, best friend, enemy, annoyance, ex-pet, escape artist, master of electricity, pal to glider, counselor, hero, rubber band, and so much more that you can't possibly dream about. Only a nice handful view me as this, but to the stranger's eye, they would automatically think, "Oh look, it's Pikachu!"

True to the word, I am basically a pikachu; my name _is_ Pikachu. However, there is one thing to note: I am NOT, repeat **NOT** Ash Ketchup's (or however it goes) pikachu. There are big difference between the two of us (I won't read off the list that runs around the world three times): he is fatter, first of all, and I am relatively thin, tall, and stretchy for my kind. He is going to grow older, but I will remain my beautiful age of sweet six forever; he has Ash, and I have the KPY; I eat batteries, and he marches 'round town kicking Pokemon bottoms. There are so many differences that separates me and him, but the history is one of the most significant.

My life begins like almost all other lives goes; once upon a time, a mommy and a daddy got married and had two litters. Then mommy divorces daddy while she is pregnant with the third litter. This third litter was born and lo and behold, I was the last one out. Obviously, my mom was tired from her labor, and my stepfather was doing something else at the moment. I was bundled up in towels by this blind midwife (I knew this by the uncomfortable way she constricted me with those bounds) and I felt a rushing sensation as I was lifted and carried across the room. The cloth was soon unfurled and I was plopped into a metal sink, complete with hand soap, faucets, and shivering temperature. I opened my eyes (and no, I wasn't blind when I was born) to stare at a gray rat with enormous, round ears. Unlike any other normal rat baby, I did not think the first thing I was born was mommy (not to mention my eyes weren't supposed to be open anyways), but this is what first popped into mind: _weirdo._ I sniffed; this rat smelled a bit like mom and a tad bit of someone else, and he smelled like a male. This guy looked down upon my little quivering self with his eyes wide.

"Mom's not going to like this." he mumbled as I listened and understood the first bit of rat-talk of my life. I didn't really pay attention, though, for I was examining his dinner-plate ears. I touched my own, my claws running along my wet fur. Instead of tracing a circle, I felt a cone; I had pointy ears. I blinked hard, and gazed back up at the stranger, hoping his ears were actually like mine. The large, circular ears remained intact.

As the rat tuned the cold and hot water taps to his liking, I noticed a cut on his wrist as he reached to adjust. I raised onto my haunches and placed both forepaws on it. I left them there for a few seconds before slipping and landing flat on my stomach. The rat pulled his arm away and stood as water poured in.

"You're a funny baby." he said quietly, studying me. He reached out to tussle the soft, short fur that rested on my head. I later found out that normal baby rats were supposed to be bald as well as blind and deaf at birth, which I find disgusting.

Also in years to come, Uncle Tally would say that I was too vicious for my own good. And you know something? He was perfectly right.

I was sitting in the sink with lukewarm water up to my little neck.

"Okay, I know that you're not going to like this, but I'll have to scrub you." The gray rat took the bar of soap and was holding it close to my face while he was looking for a brush. I felt quite threatened with his holding the bar of orange cleanser in front of me. I stood up for a second time and bit down. Despite the nasty taste, I shook my head from side to side vigorously.

""Hey! Are you chomping on the soap 'cuz you're hungry?"

I looked up at the guy. I wasn't eating it, I was merely defending myself. The tiger-like instincts were ebbing away as I let my mouth open. The sop chunks plopped into the water. I sat back down and let out a burp, and a bubble gushed out from my mouth. Confused, I looked at it, but curiosity got the better of me - I soon had the rat chuckling quietly to himself as he watched me attempt to catch it. My claws were swiping wildly in the air, trying to reach the elusive, mystical, rainbow, floating sphere. I was on my tippy-toes when the bubble just burst, and was gone. I sat back down, and whimpered, looking at my observer. He just made a simple half-smile and his golden eyes flickered like some, beautiful, magical element. In awe, I looked down upon the water's surface. On top of it was a wavering reflection of someone. I recognized the pointy ears I had felt and realized it was me. I looked at my eyes on the make-shift mirror; they were shiny-black, with glints of rich, bright pools of brown. I frowned, looked at Yellow-eyes, and back at my reflection. I wanted my eyes to be like those flickering, magical ones; and at the time, I thought I could change anything with a single touch. So I reached up to one of my eyes and jabbed it. The result: me bawling my lungs out and disturbing my other brothers and sisters, who then joined my wailing.

"Okay, bath time's over."

Yellow-eyes took me out of my bath and into the cold, cruel world. He whisked blankets off a counter and bundled my body with it. The rat picked my up and perhaps held me a little too tightly. I peered at his eyes, which shimmered softly, hiding something. But I knew that sorrow and anxiety lay in the depths of those pupils of his. Sympathizing, I tried to tell him whatever is wrong will eventually be all right, but my first phrase started out as:

"Oh-kee-day 'n' potato!"

"The rat looked at me with amusement playing with his smile.

_Oops._

"I hope mom agrees to raise you, otherwise I'm going to miss you."

"Shmooze?" I squeaked in rat. The guy ruffled my fur again and continued walking, a little more slowly this time, toward a female rat in a bed.

"Hey," the rat whispered next to one of my pointed ears, "do you like the name Pikachu? I know it's not the most original of names, but still."

"Pikachu!" I squealed in pleasure in my language. Yellow-eyes smiled sadly.

The next few moments on was intense. The she-rat in bed turned out to be my mom, and one look me made her go wild – seriously, almost-as-berserk-as-Yoshi kind of wild. She screamed and wailed at poor Yellow-eyes and another rat came into the room with a basket. The rat took me from Yellow-eyes and dumped me inside, the lid shutting and leaving me in the dark. From my frightened position, I heard this:

"Take it!"

"No Mom."

"I am your mother, and you will do what I tell you."

"No. She's my sister and I will raise her by myself if I have to."

"But son, it's a pikachu! Oh, what will they say when they find out I had a pure pikachu! It's a nightmare!" she fumed.

"You know what? I don't care about you! It's always about you, you, you!"

"I will not tolerate a pikachu in my house!"

"Well it looks like you're just gonna have to!"

"Fine! That is the last straw! I will take it to the Store myself." I peeped a glance out from the wickerwork basket, "And you are never to return to this family! Run away if you are going to be like the rotten egg you are!" My mom then took one of the cesarean equipment and threw it on Yellow-eye's tail.

I closed my eyes and heard a yelp. I felt helpless; I could do nothing except listen to the pained whimpers of Yellow-eyes, my brother. I could do nothing else except cry.

You may notice that I was recognized as a pikachu, _not a pichu_. A pure pikachu, as my mother had put it, is a pikachu born as pikachu, lives as a pikachu, and dies as a pikachu. They are rare to be born amongst Pokemon, let alone a rat family. My cruel mother was a famous breeder, which meant that she just kept reproducing "good" children. She is payed to do that, in fact. These children, however, are not normally sent to pet shops but raised to be good people. You see, we "animals" live like people in this world; we work amongst people, walk amongst people, live amongst people. The birth of a pikachu and a loss of a son (who, bu the way, does a whole load of trouble later) was a big blow to her "popularity". But my mother's actions, yet so monster-ish and tyrannic, has led my life on a whole, new, adventurous trail.

I was dropped off in front of a pet shop. To explain things, for breeders like my mom, sending your kid to a pet shop is the worst thing you could do to him or her.

Or, in this case, me. Once the coast was clear, I climbed out of the basket. I could escape! I rushed out and down the hard concrete stairs and into the grass. I passed the store's brick wall and then stopped. My attention was grabbed by a curious object on the wall. It was rectangular with two squares, each having three holes – two on the top, one on the bottom. I wondered what it was used for; it apparently had just three holes in one square, but I felt power radiating from it. Being curious from the second I was born, I decided to test the world with my finger again. I plugged my finger into the top-right opening and there was a _zap!_ I felt this raw energy coursing through my veins, through my heart, my toes, my tail. I should have been dead, even for a pikachu; instead of falling flat on my back, I just held my little finger there and felt the power pulse through my body. I maybe born from a she-rat, but this is where my story truly began.

**Yay or nay? PLEASE RATE WITH A SINCERE THOUGHT!!!! It's my very first chapter of my very first story! MORE IS TO COME!!  
**


	2. Every Celebrity Hits a Rough Spot

To let my readers know, the origin of my story is from a childhood game I used to play with the question, "What would it be like if Super Smash Bros. Characters lived in the same world?" This is what I had came up with.

**Chapter 2: Every Celebrity Hits a Rough Spot**

Yes, the title includes me too. I was eventually found by the storekeeper and was cooped up into a cage of pet rats. All they did during the day was eat, sleep, go potty, and sleep some more – fairly boring hours, I'd say. There is the occasional squeaking of the hamster wheel, but all there really was to hear was the bubbling of fish tanks.

There was also me to listen to; I yelled, I screeched, clawed, kicked, whimpered, whined. I made such a racket, but stopped short when a fellow cage-mate squeaked "Shut your hatch!"

At night, however, there was always chatter amongst the rodents – night was out time to shine. We sang, told stories, and I was eventually taught how to speak rat fluently and properly. I, too, joined the chorus, but I was never really part of the group. Every evening, after the sun goes down, I watch friends scurry around the cage, playing a lively game of tag. During these times, when the younger members flies pass the seed dish, spraying sesame in my face, I wished I could have some friends that would run with me. All I had was the moon, and my rat's nest. I had tried to tell myself "No, Pikachu: you are a LONE ranger. Lone Ranger's don't need any friends."

But Lone Rangers in a pub sometimes enjoys the luxury of a warm chit-chat.

Despite my fierce meditations urging independence, I whimpered often, watching people walk in my isle, hoping one could be my friend. One too many times, I see a boy take a puppy, or a girl with a cat, or even small child with several belly-up goldfish. Will someone ever find a room in their heart to look past puppies and kittens to look at me?

Fortunately, someone did. A little boy in green with a funky cap and blond hair answered my desperate plea. He ran over to my cage and looked straight into my eyes.

Okay, here's a little twist in this story. If you don't like it when you find that a game character's history is changed, stop reading now.

You still there? If you are feeling uncomfortable about a different version of a character's world, stop reading now.

For those who are brave, I congratulate you, but if you ever fell disturbed by my life, feel free to stop reading. It's okay, I won't be offended; I don't know even know you, so I don't really care – no offense.

On to the strange twist; in your world, there is a video game series by Nintendo called Super Smash Bros. Heard of it? Many of you will rise to that name in cheers, and others will not get a clue of it. Basically, that game is about all these different characters from popular Nintendo games com together to fight each other. My life, I'd say, is when you take all the characters from various games and mush it all into one big bedtime story. That is why I call this a Super Smash Story, get it?

I stared at the boy's big blue eyes and funky cap. Does he sound familiar to you? Yes? No? Ah well; ladies and gentlemen, I'd like for you to meet Link from you game Legend of Zelda. I'd like for you people yo know that he is sometimes a pain in the rear in my world, too.

All of a sudden, a tiny head popped up from nowhere. His small, cute face, tiny squeaky voice, and curiosity told me that he was a mere baby, as I was. He looked like a chubby, green lizard.

"Maweeo, Wiji, wooky he-uh!" it exclaimed in it's minuscule squeal.

Two pairs of feet showed up.

"What-a eez it, Yoshi?" one pair said with language I could barely understand (there are some snippets of understand-able English here and there.)

"Ye-woh wat!" the little lizard pointed at me in delight, "See, Wiji, Maweeo?"

"Yes, we-a see." another pair of brown shoes said.

"Can I have it, Mom?" the boy was already at this lady's side - or at least I can guess. With wide shoulders like football stars (I see some on the newspaper shreds that the storekeeper throws inside the cage) and a helmet, I could not see her face, let alone her head. I had a feeling she was ugly – who else would wear that cookie foil unless if it was for hiding grotesque characteristics?

I didn't like being called an "it" either; I have feelings, and a gender. Being fiercely defensive of my opinions I said to him in English,

"Technically, I am Pikachu." I said to the boy, who was immediately back at my cage.

"Wow! He talks!" he commented in surprise. Who wouldn't be surprised if all of a sudden a yellow rat started to talk to you? I felt slightly flattered, but also rather insulted.

"Excuse-ay-mua," I pointed at him, "I am a GIRL, just to put that out there."

"Oh, okay." the boy responded. He looked at me curiously, the gears inside his head turning.

"How did you learn to talk like us?" he asked politely, but he couldn't hide his fascination.

"Hello, goodbye, mama, daddy – I catch on fast." I yawned, looking at my neatly trimmed claws, "English is a WHOLE bunch easier than rat." It was true; by listening to the everyday conversations in this shop, I have achieved the feat of learning several thousand vocabulary words, including "Meow-mix".

I found myself on this new boy's, Link's, lap. He said we had to fly in a plane back to Illinois, where he lived. The lizard I had met earlier ended up going back with his owners holding a bag of several, belly-up, unfortunate fish to Italy. That's what Link said; his uncles from Italy, Mario and Luigi.

Not crazy enough for you? I arrived in Illinois. There, I met the Falcons. Link's father, Captain Falcon (well, isn't this the stuff to make you squeamish), his mother Mrs. Falcon, (or in your world, Samus Aran, which I find the couple rather random), and his baby brother, Ness. There is also Fox McCloud, a fox (as so the name shows) who is a comrade of both Samus and Cap'n Falcon. He sometimes stays to discuss villains on the loose.

For the first several months, I slept in a basket at the bottom of Link's bed. And in those first months, I felt like a newborn horse beginning to wobble on knee-buckled stilts. I was soon equipped with a bow and arrow, targeting bulls-eye targets (I got _two_ bulls-eye's, but that's because it hit the bulls-eye of the target next to the one I was supposed to hit). He also taught me the basics of swordplay, and for hours, we dueled each other, smacking each other with stripped branches from the forest in the backyard, laughing all the time.

In addition to the medieval combat Link kept near and dear to his heart, he also decided to "brush-up" on my reading skills by reading the newspaper. I rarely payed attention, however, for I had learned and connected my readings from the bottom of the old rat cage long ago in a pet shop. When I was in my bored mode, I sneaked glances at the comics and answered "uh-huh, yeah, I know." when Link told me what this word was, or what that word means. Link, my saving grace, was the best friend I could have ever imagined.

Except imagination has no bounds.

Link had turned me loose, saying something about being independent.

I sat outside his bedroom door, alone and heart-torn; I was rejected big time twice already, and I wasn't even two years old yet.

Not cool.

I whimpered, thinking about the days of the safaris of the backyard, the many fortresses that we had to defend. I thought mournfully about the hunts in the woods and target practice. Even reading those dull, monochromatic articles seemed nostalgic to me.

I was so wrapped tightly in my deep thoughts, constricted to the point where I couldn't breathe in sorrow, when I felt something pull sharply, the pain stinging my hindquarters.

I turned around.

And at that moment, while I glared into his large eyes, was the starting point of a lasting friendship. The birth of a friendship that will go from here out and into eternity.

Forever.

* * *

**Yay or Nay? Please cast your opinion!**


	3. To Wish Upon a Shooting Star

**To Wish Upon a Shooting Star**

"What's your problem?!" I was yelling out the fury from inside me. The pink thing stepped backward and looked at me.

"Jeez, it was just a small tug – what's the big deal?" the round pink thing said.

There were some things I noticed about him; he was a boy, and a young one at that; he was a pink round ball with stubby arms and feet, possessing two large, blue eyes, two markings on his face, and a mouth. And... And...

"YOU'RE BALD!" I screeched with up most disgust. I was completely appalled; there was not a single sprout of hair on him.

"So," he said, "I think hair is disgusting."

"Disgusting?" I gasped, "I think just being bare and naked is gross!"

"Naked?!" the thing jumped back in alarm, "Eww! Don't make me barf!"

"You're naked." I pointed out ruefully. I found it rather ironic that this nude thing was absolutely disgusted with nakedness as I was.

"I am _not!_" he said indignantly.

"Yes you are." I replied lightly.

"NO I am NOT! This is how I normally appear."

"Yeah, in your _birthday suit_."

"Pardon me? I'm serious – this is how I am, so get used to it." the puffball replied sternly, his eyes betraying his babyish appearance.

That phrase, "get used to it," and the tone it was said in oddly reminded me of my brother; I wondered where he was. Completely forgetting where I was, I whimpered, caught myself in time to notice the puffball scribbling something in a book. He looked up at me, looked down, and then looked back in realization I was watching and snapped the book shut.

"Hi, how's the weather?" he asked me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Who – who are you?" I hesitated to ask.

"Me?" the puffball was just about as shy as I was.

"Yeah you." I swallowed. The puffball looked around, and then gestured to himself with a questioning look. I nodded.

"Kirby," Kirby said.

Great, you're probably thinking, Mr. Pinky is now here, whoop-dee-doo. If I were you (I know some of you think Kirby is awesome, but to those who don't), I would be careful for he is my best friend and ally. We are buddies, and we swore by our names to protect each other (and if we don't, we loose our names, which is our identity). We would, in time, fight Dark Nebula, kick Black Thunder's behind, save Earth, impersonate generals, save lives, free innocent prisoners (right under the FBI's nose!), and much more as we see the worlds.

Not that we had always worked out well together. Kirby and I, in the beginning, was sometimes enemies, although we said we were friends (we did not make our vow till much later). We'd argue for hours about now seemingly pointless topics, beat each other up (and okay, I admit, but at the time, Kirby could have me knocked out on the floor in a few seconds flat; but mind you, this changes BIG time.) After a while, we'd cool our heads. A typical conversation went like this:

Me: 'Sup Baldy!

Kirby: Yo.

Me: Doesn't it bother you that you have no hair, whatsoever. Isn't it sick.

Kirby: No.

Me: Why not?

Kirby: Because then I would be like you.

Me: Is that an insult?

Kirby: No; having hair with little bulbs on one end sticking into your skin is gross. Did you know that your fur is like a toothbrush made of dead cells poking out of your skin? Eww, that's _gross_. Even worse, you have _bones_.

Me: Yeah, what about them?

Kirby: They crack, and they break, and the bone sticks out awkwardly, and that is SO creepy! They also make popping sounds! Yuck! And there's teeth - that's SO nasty – just to have those things in my mouth is – Ugh!"

Me: You're weird.

Kirby: I am not; you are.

Me: Baldy!

Kirby: Yuck-o!

Me: Hey, watch it!

Kirby: Fur ball!

Me: Pea brain!

Kirby: Miss Poopy-head!

Me: Bowling ball!

Kirby: Fatty! (I usually look at Kirby questioningly when he says this.)

Me: Blubbering Beast!

Kirby: Dumbo!

Usually, we were outside doing chores. We'd argue and name-call back and forth until an event occurs that makes us both scared.

This scenario's event is one of Link's homemade bombs.

We both screamed as dirt flew into the air and gravel cascaded onto us. Shaking, we peered around with our eyes wide open. This always was the ice that cooled our fevered temper tantrums down.

"What was that?" I said shakily.

"Link's bomb." Kirby whispered.

I looked at Kirby and his round, pink self. He was so strange looking.

"Where do you come from?" I asked, wondering if there was a world where people looked as alien as him. Kirby shrugged and kicked a pebble, shyly.

"I don't really know." he replied quietly, more softly than usual.

"Oh." I was a little concerned for the guy.

"But I do know something about my past." Kirby said, brightening, and straightened as much as a puffball could.

Kirby told me of his adventures; he had his slice of strawberry shortcake stolen once and he had to go all over this planet called Popstar to reclaim it.

"These rodents took it from me. They were meanie-heads, except for the dude in the U.F.O."

"How do you know?" I questioned him.

"He wrote a letter of apology." Kirby simply replied, waving the subject off.

"How did you get all over the planet and into another galaxy?" I asked.

"I walked."

"Wha-?"

"No, dummy," he laughed, "I flew on a star. I still do sometimes."

"I wish I could fly." I said wistfully. Kirby closed his eyes for a second, thinking deeply; he then reopened them and asked me sincerely,

"Would you be interested in trying?"

Would I? Man, if you saw me, you would have said to your imaginary friend, " I do not know this crazy animal," because I was just _springing_ ten feet off the ground (well, not literally, but high enough) from sheer excitement.

"Okay, okay – I get it." Kirby exhaled sharply, rolling his eyes.

In no time at all, I was amongst the stars in the night sky with my friend Kirby by my side on another star. The overwhelming joy of flying and the feel of the clear, crisp wind rippling through your fur is amazing. The rushing sensation floods your veins as you soar high above the clouds; it feels magical, my dear reader, magic unlike anything else in the world. Up in the night sky, its almost as if I was in an entirely new world where time is lost to the stars and the misty-blue depths of midnight. You have this sense of nirvana with just you, the constellations, and Kirby (who usually is out flying at night, too.) This feeling is my eighth wonder of the world.

Cruising slowly alongside Kirby, I thought about the questions that flooded my brain like a swamp. Even though this was supposed to be a tranquil and quiet moment, I still erupted.

"What are you made of?" I asked Kirby. Kirby exhaled sharply in amusement.

"Atoms." he said simply, "Everyone is made of atoms."

"Don't be stupid, everyone is made of atoms!" I laughed. Kirby frowned slightly and said,

"That's what I just said."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little stupid for a second, but then corrected myself, "I meant what substance are you made of."

"Bubble gum." Kirby said without laughing. I, however, laughed aloud for several seconds until I realized it wasn't really that funny. In fact, it had gone awkwardly quiet.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"No; at least I don't think so. I can't be sure." he said quietly, looking down upon his golden star.

"Have your mom ever told you what you're made of?" I exclaimed. My mother never told me anything, but it was pretty self-explanatory that in her perspective, I am not even worth a bucket of warm spit (I would have used a cruder word, but...)

"I don't have a mom." Kirby said, looking sadder by the minute.

" What about a dad?" I interrogated further.

"I don't have anybody of my kind but myself." he finally replied after a long pause, spent looking longingly out into the distant nebulae.

"Oh," I murmured softly, " I don't have a dad, or at least I don't know him."

It was then a very tense, and very sorrowful moment then. Kirby has non relatives, no one to look up to; he was alone, that poor Kirby.

Trying to subject, I asked,

"Do you read the newspaper?"

"Yes. I like the business page." Kirby answered with a smug grin on his pink face.

"Really?" I was perplexed.

"Heavens not!" Kirby laughed, "You are _so_ gullible."

"Am not" I said defiantly.

"Just joking," Kirby just sat on his star giggling as it hovered over the woods behind the house.

"There was a round dude in the newspaper that Link kept talking about." I commented, thinking about the times when Link tried to teach me reading.

"What does he look like?" Kirby faced me.

"Very fat," I began explaining, "so fat that he is round like you. I call him Burger Boy," I finished with a self-satisfied smile.

"What is the person called?" Kirby asked.

"Burger Boy."

"No, what's his _real_ name?"

"How did you know he was a guy?" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Burger _Boy, _hello?" Kirby pointed out, "What's his real name?"

"I don't know." I admitted.

"Can't you read?" Kirby said impatiently.

"Maybe if I didn't drool on that bi, sure I could have." I retorted. I didn't feel very ashamed, for those reading classes were BORING; how could I not drool?

"Well, that's helpful." Kirby said to himself bluntly. There was a short pause.

"You know what," I piped up, "I bet you that Burger Boy is related to you."

"I don't know what he looks like." Kirby said, "How am I supposed to know he is related to me?"

"Hmm..." I looked at Kirby and thought about a mental picture of Burger Boy.

"You're both... Fat?" I concluded.

"Jeez, you're such a friend." Kirby muttered under his breath.

"Sor-ree; but you guys are just two blubbery bowling balls." I said truthfully. It's not my fault that Kirby looks fat.

"Really?" Kirby asked, suddenly interested.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you; I found him in the obituary column – his is on the front cover!" I quipped. Kirby frowned and gave me the you-are-so-stupid-look and said,

"Obituaries are not on the front page."

"Oh." I remarked, feeling rather dim.

"Do you remember reading his name?" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, I think his name was Mita Kneeta, or Meeta Knighta." I scrunched up my nose in effort to remember the name.

"Or Meta Knight?" Kirby suggested.

"Oh yeah, it's Meeta Knight!" I saw -"

"It's pronounced ' Meh-tuh Nite." Kirby explained, sounding annoyed.

"Same difference; anyways, I saw him once when Link brought me o a shopping trip. He waved at _me_! It was scaaaa-_rree!_" I recalled. Burger Boy was scary – he had a pair of yellow eyes that when he looks directly at you, it's like he can see through you.

"I fought him. I think he likes candy." Kirby smiled with a satisfied tone in his small voice.

"How do you know?" I asked, curiosity soaking my brain with its juices.

"I saw a candy jar, somewhat hidden, nearby." Kirby said.

"It can be someone else's" I pointed out.

"Oh no; that candy jar is no ordinary jar – it's made of fine glass or even crystal."

"So, he could have stolen it from some rich person." I said, stubbornly trying to stick to my opinion.

"It could have been if there wasn't a Master Sword on it." Kirby said, as it if cleared up everything. I, however, had no clue.

"Master Sword?"

"It's Meta Knight's sword, symbol, and status, _duh!_" he said that as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well," I mumbled to myself, thinking the whole conversation over, "that would explain those extra pounds."

When we finally reached the ground, it was three in the morning. I practically dropped dead asleep right in front of the bathroom. I woke later still in front of the doorway to the potty. Why did I fall asleep here? Kirby told me that I needed to go to the bathroom but fell asleep before I even reached the door. It took several seconds to realize he was right, so I went.


	4. The Day the Toilet was Possessed

**The Day the Toilet was Possessed**

Well, I did finish my business. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands while standing on the counter top (I am not tall enough to reach the sink from the ground). I was still washing my hands when I heard the flushing come to a stop, which shows you how long I take with soap and water. I was dizzy from lack of sleep; my head was like a rocket orbiting the Earth at light speed. Oh gee...

I was so dizzy, I accidentally knocked this little, portable radio into the toilet.

_Oops._ I watched the sparks of electricity slither around the toilet bowl, and returned to my hand-scrubbing. My head churned, and the clanking noises from the toilet bowl didn't help the feeling either.

Noises from the toilet?

I looked at the toilet to see the water churning and swirling, with the radio whizzing in circles, just as my brain was.

Once I got out, I rushed to Kirby's room.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I shouted, "Something weird happened to the toilet!"

Kirby was reading a book, but he looked up, clearly unimpressed with my news.

"Fascinating," he answered dully (not wanting to be interrupted), "why should I worry about the toilet?"

"Maybe you need to go." I said.

"Maybe I _don't_ need to go." Kirby retorted, and continued reading.

"What? You don't go potty?" I was flabbergasted, " Then what will you do with the extra waste?"

"Extra waste?!" Kirby snapped his book shut in offense, "You organisms waste perfectly good nutrients!" I just looked at him, thinking he was a little off today.

"Whatever," I pushed the matter aside, "Anyways, the toilet is possessed! It's swirling and swirling and-" Kirby cut me off.

"The toilet water spins in circles when it is flushed, _okay?_" Kirby said, impatiently, perhaps thinking that there was something wrong with me (which there is perfectly nothing).

"But, but," I tried to find a way to convince Kirby I'm not stupid, "I flushed it _way_ before that even started. I'll show you!"

Kirby followed me to the bathroom and we both looked into the silent toilet.

"Nothing is happening." he finally commented.

"But it was swirling!" I whined. I started jumping up and down, pointing at the toilet, facing Kirby. Kirby's eyes widened.

"Um, Pikachu?"

"It was swirling, I swear!" I cried.

"No, Pikachu -"

"It was swirling, I-"

**"SHUT UP AND TURN AROUND!!!"** Kirby yelled with his mouth open wide in my face. Here's a little advice: if you ever meet Kirby, do not make him shout at you like that (for those who knows Kirby, you are fully aware how big Kirby's mouth can get.)

I turned around to see the water with the radio sitting peacefully in the toilet.

"Jump a few times." Kirby said, now calmly and quietly. I started to jump, but nothing happened.

"Just keep jumping and watch the radio." Kirby commanded. A few seconds passed without anything interesting happening.

"You're making me look like an idiot." I said, still jumping.

"No, no," Kirby insisted, "watch the radio."

I did look at the radio, and this time, it was plopping in and out of the water, synchronizing my jumps perfectly.

"Whoa," I marveled, "do you think the radio is possessed?"

"No." Kirby answered.

I stopped jumping, and so did the radio. Then it was just the two of us staring at the now again, silent toilet bowl.

"Hey," Kirby finally said, brightening, "Think of shrinking the radio."

"Why – that's stupid." I said.

"Just do it. I want to see what happens." Kirby sounded interested.

"Fine." I then thought about a rapidly shrinking radio.

Nothing.

"Think like you mean it!"

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on the image of the radio shrinking into a small dot. I thought so hard that I had to clench my fist to stop myself from exploding.

And through my concentration, I heard a few crunching sounds.

"Whoa," Kirby exclaimed softly. I opened my eyes and there was the radio sinking to the ceramic bottom, all mushed up and dented.

"Yeah, whoa." I echoed.

"Hey, Kirby," I watched the metal settle on the bottom, "do you think _I'm_ possessed?"

"No." he said, "I think you have special powers, though."

"Special powers?" I asked, confused.

"You're a pikachu, right?" Kirby said to me.

"Duh; my name is Pikachu." I clarified, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Pikachus are famed for their electrical powers! You should know your own kind, AND yourself!" Kirby's voice started rising from impatience. Oh, boy; I did not want full-blown screaming, ESPECIALLY from him.

"I think you can manipulate electricity." he concluded.

"How do we know?" I said, "That's a radio."

"That has electrical properties in it." Kirby pointed out, "Hey, you should un-crumple it!"

However, I defied. If I had special powers, I want to do something more interesting than un-crumpling a radio.

"I want to make it bigger." I said.

"No please, don't" Kirby cautioned.

"I'm going to make a ginormous radio!" I cried.

Just outside the bathroom door, you see a puff of smoke usher out from under the openings below. Several clanks reverberated through the hallway, and coughing and the sound of trickling water could be heard.

"It was not my fault! The toilet wasn't big enough!"


	5. The REAL Eighth Wonder of the World

**The Real Eighth Wonder of the World**

"We're going to Italy!" Kirby bopped my head and opened the window shutters. Morning light poured into the room like the milk into my cereal yesterday. I groaned; I had a nightmare earlier at midnight, leaving me awake for hours.

"Not now." I mumbled, wishing for just another minute of peace.

"Yes now! They're not going to wait for you all day." Kirby shouted.

"Who?" I asked weakly, trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

"Oh just hurry up!" Kirby bounced around the room and out the door.

I yawned. Usually when I yawn, my mouth turns into a small "o", unlike Kirby (hence the size of his mouth). I went to the bathroom (two months ago, the toilet was oblivion, for some strange reason) to brush my teeth. Before the gooey paste touched the fibers, I felt a slight tickling feeling on my right ear. So, I scratched it.

Okay, I just didn't lift one paw to use one claw to scratch my ear. Some rats do that, some don't. The way someone scratches their ear is a family trait – rats in the family will scratch their ear the same way by instinct. In my family, we take both paws, lower the itching ear, and start combing our claws through the fur on our ears. We run our claws through quickly, from top to bottom, and then lift our paws to the top to start over. We do this for a few seconds and then raise our heads once more and give it a little shake. Just imagine me doing this every time I say "I scratch my ear".

After a thorough brush and a distasteful breakfast of water in cornflakes (I had used the rest of the milk yesterday), I watched the family get ready to leave.

"Are we taking a plane?" I asked Kirby.

"No." was all he replied.

"How come? Isn't Italy far away?" I was rather confused.

"Sure it is – we're just taking a faster route." Kirby reassured me.

"Oh-kee-day then." I said, not knowing what to think about the subject.

The whole family was gathered around a green pipe opening in the middle of the living room carpet, a sight that puzzled me.

"Ooh, where did this come from?" I asked my pink friend.

"From the ground" Kirby observed the pipe next to me, "where else?" Wind can be heard whistling through the pipe. Unseen, it gushed out and flowed over my fur.

"Mmm... Smells like fresh air, flowers, and – pasta?" I pondered the odd thought.

"You got everything?" Kirby asked.

"Oh gee whiz! I forgot me pillow!" I bolted out of the living room. I grabbed my soft, bean-y pillow that I frequently used to squish my face into (don't ask why). By the time I got back to where the family was gathered, there wasn't much of a family left. It was just Link, Kirby, and me.

"What do you with the pipe, just jump in?" I asked randomly. As if on command, Link hopped into the gaping hole.

"Hey, you do jump in." I commented to myself. Kirby prepared to jump in as well.

"Are you sure you can fit through that?" I asked, teasingly. Kirby just frowned in response and jumped cleanly through, leaving me alone in Samus's mansion.

At first, I was nervous about jumping into this big, black hole of doom that could leave me falling down into a bottomless pit. I mean, it was the first time Kirby asked me to jump down a random hole that he claims that it will get us to Italy one way or another. However, it was either the fear of being left all alone in a big empty house or the aroma of pasta that got me diving headfirst – come to think of it, I think it was the pasta.

I popped out of the pipe and found myself in a new, alien-ish world. No, by the term "alien-ish" I mean that it is unfamiliar to me, not that I was surrounded by overgrown mushrooms on a cratered moon with blue-green people waving from the tops of them. Anyways, the room I was in was a mix between old and new, all tidy, organized and grand. There were lovely, dark leather couches and a plasma television with surround sound (when I say surround sound in this house, I mean _surround_ sound. I found a little speaker embedded in one of the couch's armrests, several in the carpet as well as the ones that you normally see.) There was also a huge fireplace under the ginormous plasma screen with crackling, yuletide flames roaring up the chimney. There were multiple sets of pots and vases, all containing real foliage and flowers, set strategically in the corners of the room.

Only Kirby was waiting for me; the rest had gone to meet the other people.

"How long did it take your fat body to squeeze through?" Kirby joked.

"Ha, you're funny," I said sarcastically, "how long are we staying in this place?"

"Oh, a week or two, I guess." Kirby thought. He began to walk away, and I followed him

"Where are we going to sleep?" I asked him. I hope we didn't have to sleep on the floor, because I didn't bring anything to sleep on.

"Maybe in a guest room, I don't know." Kirby answered a little impatiently, with the _duh_ tone in his voice. He tiptoed along, dragging his drawstring bag of paraphernalia (I learned a new word today!) behind him. I walked behind, holding my pillow close to my chest.

We rounded several corners and passed through a few hallways.

"We're lost." I complained after a long silence.

"No we're not." Kirby replied defiantly.

[A hundred and one doors, ninety-two halls, one-hundred and twenty-two corners, two miles and two hours and a half a second later...]

"Now do you think we're lost?" I asked, impatient with Kirby's stubbornness.

"No; this is just a big house." Kirby said matter-of-factly.

"Kirby, do you think that this house is big enough to walk two _miles_ through it without going in circles?" I spat out, not wanting to bear this situation much longer, "See, Kirby? We passed that egg just five minutes ago!" I pointed to a frame with a white egg, it's shell splayed with green spots.

"Whatever." Kirby dropped the subject absent-minded-ly.

We walked onwards, and I swear that Kirby was lost because we passed that egg I mentioned earlier another dozen times in the next fifteen minutes.

"Is this house really this big?" We were reaching our third mile.

"Oh yes," Kirby said, not caring, " this house is the biggest on Earth – er, the biggest in existence."

"Like our mansion back at home?" I piped up; that house is the biggest piece of home _I_ have ever seen. What else could be bigger?

"Yes, like our mansion, but like three-hundred times larger." Kirby answered nonchalantly. Me, on the other hand, had my jaw dislocated from shock.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." I gasped, "There is _no_ way for this house to be able to fit on Italy." Kirby stopped in a common room and walked over to a large window, peering out of it.

"The problem is, Pikachu, we are not _on_ Italy." he said, still staring out the window.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, confused by Kirby's odd statement. Kirby turned and looked at me dead in the eye, and said calmly,

"How are you with your heights?"

"Fine, thank you," I replied coolly, "and what are you trying to say?"

"Come over to this window and take a _nice_ look down." Kirby offered, stepping away from his viewpoint. I walked over to him and stood where he was and looked out. All I saw was a perfect blue sky with no clouds in sight – until I looked down. There were those fluffy cotton balls, all the way down at the bottom of this house (possibly as as tall as a skyscraper). Through a little hole in the whiteness, I saw tiny specks, which I had a bad feeling was the city below us.

"Pikachu," Kirby said grandly, sweeping his pink arm back out to the common room, "I welcome you to the Castle in the Air."

* * *

**The Castle in the Air was inspired by the stage Peach's Castle in the original Super Smash Bros.**

**To WolfWonders, I am _very_ grateful for your reviews. Thank You, and to all my readers too!!!! Keep reading!  
**


	6. The Y Factor

**The Y Factor**

We wandered through the hallways, searching for a staircase; Kirby said that our guest room would be on the next floor.

"If we were to slice this house in half from east to west, you would see that there are passages to the next floor on either side," Kirby explained to me, "If we started all the way on the west side, we -" I cut Kirby off.

"What do you mean? If there were ways up to the next floor on either side of the house, we could easily found a staircase up!" I argued.

"Yes, only if they were staircases!" Kirby retorted, equally as cross with me as I was with him.

"So what if they are ladders, we can still -"

"They are FIRE**MEN'S **_**POLES!!!**_" Kirby emphasized each syllable with a louder, more frustrated tone. My ears flattened on my head in fright, wincing at his surprising volume.

However, my ears began to flick and twitch as they began to pick up sounds of scuffling and panting coming down the hallway. I tilted my head to the side, pondering, when a little green lizard came running around the corner towards us, with head looking over shoulder.

"Ooh!" The noise came out in a little squeak as the lizard ran into Kirby and fell back on his bottom. I studied him. This reptile had bright green skin with wee-little orange shoes on his minuscule feet. He donned a red saddle upon his back, and possessed a pair of large, pupil filled eyes the sparkled brightly. Sweeping over his body with my eyes once more, I assumed that he was only an eight-inch high baby.

The dinosaur was nervously glancing back and forth between me and Kirby, making tiny, whimpering noises.

"Hey little guy," Kirby, finally able to look down on someone, said gently, "what's your name?"

"I hungee." It squeaked.

"Hi Hungee." Kirby welcomed the little dinosaur.

"Kirby, he's hungry." I said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, well what do you want to eat?" Kirby asked him.

"Yoshi!" It squealed.

"What?" Kirby frowned, "I never heard that before."

"My name Yoshi!" he repeated.

"Oh," Kirby said, flustered, "well hello then, Yoshi, my name is Kirby."

"Name Kih-bee." Yoshi mimicked.

"And mine 's Pikachu." I introduced myself as well.

"Pee-KAA-choo!" Yoshi squealed in delight. He paused his chatter and gave us a huge grin before saying,

"I hungee – dit way to da kittan!"

We followed the little Yoshi up a staircase and several halls into a kitchen, but not an ordinary sized one. This kitchen was divided into four sub-kitchens; through the middle was a tan-and-white section – to the right was red-and-white section and to the left of it was a green-and-white section. In both green and red sections was a yellow hallway (leading to the fourth kitchen) on the wall opposite the counters, which were on the far wall in front of me.

"Hello!"

I looked to see two men speaking in unison. Both had brown mustaches, blue overalls, caps, white gloves and white shoes. The differences between the two is that the shorter one is wearing a red shirt and matching cap, embroidered with an 'M'. The taller man was wearing a green shirt and cap with the same attire, an 'L' sewed into it.

Obviously, by the sound of their voices, they were native to Italy, with quite a heavy accent smothering their English. When they said, "hello," they drew out the l's for a second and a half, and dip their pitch in their voice down and up again on their o's.

Helllo-oh.

"Hi Maweeo, Wiji!" Yoshi squeaked to the two.

"Why hello, Yoshi!" They replied in unison once more. This time, however, they kept the l's crisp, concise, and short. It is interesting how these men talked.

"Can I haf uh beh-wee that?" Yoshi pleaded.

_What did he say?_ I thought. Apparently, the men knew what Yoshi was asking for.

"Oke-dokey!" The red man bent down and handed Yoshi something from his pocket.

"Yay!" Yoshi clutched a pastry with both hands, "Thang-koo, Wiji, Maweeo!"

"You're-a welcome, Yoshi." They replied. Yoshi left the kitchen without us. I, however, remained with Kirby.

"Um, what's your name?" I asked the two men, who were looking at me.

"Mario," the red man answered.

"Luigi," the green man nodded in response.

"What's-a yours?" They asked me, simultaneously.

"Uh... Pikachu." I said shyly.

"Well hello then, Pikachu, and-a welcome back, Ki-uh-bee!" They greeted. Kirby waved at the two.

"Well, enjoy your-a stay, and we will-a see you at supper!" Luigi headed back to the green kitchen, and Mario to the red. I stood there with Kirby for some time – Mario perhaps felt that someone was still there for he turned around and asked,

"Is-a there anything I can do for you?"

"Ah," I thought, tilting my head back, "you can show us where our guest room is, I suppose."

"No problem-o!" Mario exclaimed, "This-a way then, shall we?"

We followed Mario out of the kitchen and back into the complex "labyrinth". Five minutes into the search for a place to sleep, I found myself looking at the egg-picture for the umpteenth time.

"Are we lost?" I called for attention, "I saw that egg for a million times already."

"And...?" Mario asked, his voice trailing off, wanting further explanation.

"I think we're going in circles." I concluded.

"Why would that-a be?" Mario questioned, still looking forward nonchalantly.

"Look, I've seen that egg for a million times," I said, frustrated, "See? There it is again!"

"Oh, that?" Mario looked at the framed picture, "We have that-a picture in-a every hallway." he answered my question simply.

"Why?" I was rather confused.

"Oh, Luigi said it would-a be a good idea."

A good idea to leave innocent children wandering aimlessly through this maze? Some idea...

"Luigi eez a little – uh – _cuckoo._" Mario whispered as he twirled a finger next to his ear.

"What deed you-a say?!" A far-off voice called.

"Oh, I was-a just telling – uh – Pimp-ki-oo what-a wonderful brother you are." Mario called back (obviously trying to cover his previous statement) apparently to Luigi.

"Whatever." Luigi hollered.

Mario picked out a guest room for me and Kirby. Inside, it was relatively spacious, with silky curtain hanging over the window. A jumbo-sized, pillow-topped, state-of-the-art, cushy bed lay at the center of the room. I went over to it and flopped onto the cloud-like surface. I turned over and looked at Kirby, who then frowned.

"What do you-a think?" Mario asked politely.

"We -" Kirby started.

"It's perfect!" I exclaimed flopping myself backwards onto the cascade of pillows.

"Oke-dokey, then!" Mario turned to leave.

"But -" Kirby called out urgently – Mario was gone.

"What's wrong?" I asked, rolling around.

"Pikachu, there is -"

"Oh, by ze way," Mario popped in again.

"EET'S-A DINNER TIME!" Luigi announced loudly from behind his shorter brother. I, who had recently discovered I can zip a mile high, jumped out of surprise. I painfully hit the ceiling, literally squishing my entire body hamburger-style, and snapped back down like a rubber band.

***

Dinner was great. We had the perfect lasagna, and while stuffing my face (well, you would also gross yourself out with the way you would eat that savory dish) I met some new people. There was Zelda, and she was a pretty, young, girl (and I _swear_ on my lasagna that Link was making googly-eyes at her – aww, how cute. XP) There was also Princess Peach. I know that in your world that Peach has a relationship with Mario, but not here. Forget about all the lovey-dovey stuff from your Nintendo and accept that Peach is Mario and Luigi's sister. I know that's strange, but I got used to it, and so can you.

If you were at the Castle in the Air at that moment, you would smell a lingering scent of bananas.

That's because Donkey Kong was sitting there. Not only that, Princess Peach had three or four other monkeys that drove us _insane!_" What was worse was that _[insert word here]_ Jigglypuff! She annoys us just by talking non-stop and singing little tunes (more of screaming her head off – if she really had one). My first encounter with Jigglypuff was _lethal_.

"So, you're new here." Jigglypuff said to me in a sugary drawl.

"Yeah." I said, flatly.

"Well, don't get too comfortable around here because Yoshi is _always_ making a hassle." Jigglypuff sighed, "He is _so_ unorthodox." Jigglypuff rolled her eyes.

"I thought he was kinda cute." I thought aloud.

"Well, I'm just giving you a heads-up!" Jigglypuff quipped brightly.

"Super." I answered in a dull tone.

"Oh no, here he comes!" she hissed, and pulled me aside. Yoshi ran by and she stuck her foot out. The green dinosaur tripped and fell on his little white belly. He whimpered, and looked up at us, tears blurring his dilating pupils.

"Hah! That will teach _you_ for what you did yesterday." Jigglypuff taunted. I looked at the tiny dinosaur, who looked back at me with puppy-eyes.

"What did he do?" I asked, now turning my attention to Jigglypuff.

"He interrupted _my_ recital with his squealing. Uh! That was _so_ embarrassing." Jigglypuff cried haughtily, nudging Yoshi with her foot, "Now _scram_, before I think of something else to do to you."

"I can s-sing." Yoshi whimpered, shaking, slowly pulling himself to his feet.

"No you can't. Only _I_ can sing." Jigglypuff stated snobbishly. She then started to sing. I have to admit, it was actually pretty good – until a few seconds later. Her voice turned into a wail that danced all over the place, becoming shriller by the second. She finally reached a super-high note, and it was so piercing that not only it shattered my eardrums, but also the chandelier over our heads. Yoshi cried as crystal rained upon us.

"Your singing SUCKS!" I screamed at her, closing my eyes to avoid the fine glass from entering my eye. The crystal dust was settling its sparkly self on my fur.

"You are just being stupid; stupid, stupid, stupid! You are a shame to this house!" she screamed right back at me, and I winced at the sharpness of her pitch.

"Oh I don't know about me, but I sure do know about you!" I replied. I watched her open and close her mouth, lost at words.

"You – you are crazy!" she finally spat back. I snorted.

"Well so are you and your poopy monkey friends!" I hissed, "C'mon Yoshi, we can leave this warm bucket of spit here." (Actually, I used a cruder word.)

"I'm warning you; I will hunt you down and beat you up! I will be watching your every move!" Jigglypuff screamed her words. Empty words. I took Yoshi's hand. Something disturbed me about what that pink, obnoxious ball had said, though. How am I supposed to use the bathroom privately, now?

I found Kirby wandering through the halls (although Kirby said _he_ found me, but I beg to differ). I was walking around and Kirby all of a sudden pops 'round the corner.

"I think Jigglypuff is stalking me!" I confessed, and then filled Kirby in with all of the details of the encounter. Kirby frowned and said at the end,

"Well, that was mean."

"I know," I said, "she was just terrible to Yoshi. He was crying and – where is he?"

We found him in our guest room, jumping on the bed. He was giggling, his long, pink tongue flopping all over the place, showering spit wherever it flew. Yoshi saw us staring, and he grinned so hard, his eyes were sealed shut. He giggled some more and returned to his jumping spree.

"He _was_ crying..." I mumbled.

It was bed time, and Yoshi scurried off to his room.

"Good night, Kirby." I said, heading towards the heavenly bed.

"Good night," he replied, already sprawled out on it.

"Hey, what's the big idea? Get your own bed!" I scolded.

"That's the problem; there is only ONE bed!" Kirby said, "I tried to tell you that earlier, but NO, you didn't listen."

I will not accept sleeping on the floor.

* * *

**I was never a big fan of Jigglypuff, so sorry to all of those who are. Jigglypuffs are nice, but this one happens to be a meanie head.**

**If you are ever having a hard time trying to understand what Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, or anyone else, try saying them out loud - it helps. Note: Yoshi's Rs and Ls are sometimes Ws. Sometimes the Rs are not pronounced at all. That's where the "ah"s (as in are) come from.  
**

**Yay or nay? Rate and Review! And I PROMISE that the story will get more interesting, it's just getting to those parts.  
**


	7. I Took a Marker

**I Took a Marker...**

This is the only short chapter in this story. You will not see another like this.

Well, I did not like the fact I would have to sleep on the floor (Kirby proved to be immovable). I looked around the room, and spotted a desk. I walked over to it in the dark, with only the few streams of moonlight issuing through the curtains. I hopped into the chair provided, I rooted around in the desk's drawers.

I found a huge, fat, black permanent marker. I stumbled back to the bed, groping my way across the carpet. I clambered back on top of the mattress. Kirby watched as I took a marker and drew a thick, permanent line from the top of the bed to the bottom. I recapped the marker in satisfaction.

"That is your half of the bed, and this is my half." I announced to Kirby.

"You're crazy..." he mumbled.

But we left it at that.


	8. My New BFF

**My New BFF**

Okay, okay; I LIED. This chapter is also short, but nonetheless, important.

I heard scuffling that night and I woke up. I looked around; Kirby was still in his portion of the bed, I remained on top of mine. I saw no one around, so I let my head fall back on the pillow, and drifted to sleep.

More scuffling prevented that from happening completely. I sat up, alert, and quickly looked around. No one again. But something tugged on the sheets near the foot of the bed. I leaned over the edge to see a tiny Yoshi looking at me with super-huge baby-eyes, somehow quite visible in the dim light.

"What's wrong?" I sighed, tired and sleepy, but concerned.

"I had a nigh-may-uh." he whimpered, sinking his body lower to the ground, seeming more vulnerable and innocent by the minute.

"You had a nightmare?" I asked him gently.

"Mm-hmm." he nodded in agreement. Poor Yoshi, his quivering body looked so helpless...

"Yoshi, you can sleep with me tonight." I offered; I remembered those friendless nights in a cage with only the moon for comfort.

"Sure." Kirby said sarcastically, all of a sudden. Apparently he was awake too.

"I mean it." I said. I looked back at Yoshi. Yoshi lifted his tiny arms to me, and somehow, I reached down and pulled him onto the bed without falling off. I settled back into a comfortable position, and Yoshi crawled over and curled up next to me.

"Thang-koo," he breathed softly, "you guyz ah my bess fends foh-ev-ah!"

It was kind of too soon to make that conclusion, but he was right.


	9. Algebraic Equation KPY

_**SEVERAL YEARS LATER.....**_

_**

* * *

**_**Algebraic Equation K+P+Y**

Alright-y, we are now several years older. This is past our baby years and we grow into kids! Ra ra Dis-toom-ba, now on with the story.

I was back in good ol' Illinois. Many things have really changed ever since I left you hanging at the end of the last chapter.

To start the list, Ness is not a baby anymore; he is six years old, just like Kirby. Link is now a _pre-teen_, by thunder! He has changed _so_ much. He reached a foot higher, and his facial features are more defined (not to mention the new piercing in his ear). He also became more interested (shh...) Zelda. He has all eyes set on her, that love-sick puppy. As far as I know, they have the same classes, except for language arts. Lucky Link – Zelda has to stay with us so she can go to school (her parents are deceased, the poor thing.) You would probably notice that Yoshi is not the sweet, tiny, bite-sized morsel anymore; he has grown to five feet tall from eight inches. However, he is still is a baby.

The second biggest thing that changed was Kirby. Kirby goes to school now. He is not at home anymore to help do household chores, or play a game of hide-and-seek with me or Yoshi. Sometimes, Yoshi is back at Italy, so I had to spend most of my time alone. The three of us are like the strings in a braid – tight, and intertwined. By myself, I am left lonely.

Nevertheless, I am very productive, making most of the time I had. The very first, most important change was me. I experimented; I found that my electrical power extended _much_ farther than controlling conductors, making lightning fly from my cheeks, creating a thunderstorm, and other basic pikachu moves. I now can detect electrical signals running in a device and understand what it means, such as commands running through a computer. I now can hack onto different files and secret websites because I can "hear" the password needed, or a route around a barrier. When you have to type a code to open the garage, or get into a gated neighborhood, I can use the same technique to open those. But I find it kinda rude to barge into other people's houses without ringing the doorbell, so I don't sneak through the garage. Electronic hangman is not fun to play anymore, because I would already read the signals and know what the word is without intentionally doing so. With these reading skills, I have found out that I can also read feelings and basic thought from the electrical signals from a brain as they jump the synapses from brain cell to brain cell. You're probably thinking, _what the heck?_

I was making a lightbulb switch on and off, on and off repeatedly when Kirby, Link, and Zelda came marching home. Well, come to think of it, Kirby can't march. All of them were not marching, so forget about marching home.

"Yo, Kirby!" I greeted my pink buddy.

"'Sup." Kirby responded.

"Nothing much." I replied casually, "Any homework?"

"You know me," Kirby winked, "I NEVER have homework, remember? I always finish it at lunch, or something."

The thing is about Kirby is that he is _super_ smart. He is at the middle school level right now, because his IQ was too high for kindergarten. In fact, he should be in high school, but it's too crazy to put a six-year old in the ninth grade. At first, I thought Kirby had this ginormous brain that filled his entire head (or body, I guess) and that remembered everything. Surprisingly, Kirby was really grossed out when I told him this. Apparently, he does not have a brain, and yet he claims to remember _everything._ A possible key to his success lies with his powerful observation and note-taking skills. Kirby told me that he keeps a journal with all his notes he made since as long as he learned to write. He just pops the pink book out in a flash, scribbles neatly, and puts it away. If it is a quick note, it takes him exactly how long I take to snap three times, which is a little less than three seconds.

"So, what tomfoolery shall we do today, Kirby?" I asked. Kirby looked around, making sure that no one was in hearing range.

"Pikachu, we nearly go in trouble last time. You don't want to go into time-out, do you?" he hissed.

"Oh come on," I complained, "it's not like I'm going to get caught anytime soon – Link, Cap'n Falcon, nor Samus can never catch me."

"Houdini was a great escape artist, but you are -"

"Kirby," I said slyly, shaking my head, "my middle name _is_ Houdini." Just as Houdini was, I am an escapade artist and is becoming more talented all the while.

"Besides," I continued, "Yoshi is coming for the weekend; what else is there to do?"

"Yoshi's coming?" Kirby's eyes widened with surprised delight.

"Yeah; I overheard Samus talking on the phone to Mario and Luigi." I confirmed.

"Samus is home too?" Kirby asked.

"Yeah." I said. Samus and her bounty hunting kept her from home and wearing her armor most of the time. I, for one, has never seen her out of it.

"Sweet," Kirby said, thinking, "I suppose we can have room for some joshing around."

"But Kirby, we have to do our chores first." I added.

The pipes we use to transport ourselves from place to place are sometimes infested with weeds; nasty, biting weeds with razor-sharp teeth. Mario and Luigi had said that the plants were like piranhas that was warped with a venus fly trap. Unfortunately, they were right.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." I sang. I peered down a pipe and listened to the whistling wind rushing through the tube, and Kirby whacking a weed with a fan.

"This is taking too long." Kirby exclaimed. He threw the fan behind him and took out a hammer and slammed the pest clear into the air, shielding his eyes from the sun as they followed the green dot's course. I looked at the wooden mallet I was given, then the fan in my right hand. I tossed it overhead and flipped the hammer to replace it and swung the mallet with full force, knocking a weed just jumping out of the pipe. The flying plant followed its kin across the sky. I smiled with self-satisfaction.

"Well, this one's good!" I shouted to particularly no one, and moved to another green opening in the ground.

The weed that roomed in the new pipe turned out to be a fat, lazy bum – it simply wouldn't budge. I would have been stuck there forever, but thanks to my genius-of-a-brain, I sneaked into Link's room while he was away. I sifted through his cabinets and came across what I was looking for – one of Link's homemade bombs. I took one of them, as well as a can of Dr. Pepper from his mini-refrigerator, with me.

"What are you doing?" Kirby asked as he watched me as I carried the bomb out onto the patio. I took two stray rocks and tried to start a fire.

That did not work.

What did work, however, was the two-stick method. I am very, very fast when doing simple tasks (such as snapping), so I can take two wooden twigs and let friction do the work to make a forest fire. A spark flew and landed on the the string of the bomb, and the countdown was on. I tossed it to my right hand.

"Fire in the hole!" I cried, and dropped the explosive down the pipe. A few seconds later, a puff of smoke and a rumble told me it had done its duty. A smoky, burnt, barely distinguishable lump of leaves few out and flopped right next to me.

"I'm good." I complimented to my conscience. My conscience nodded in agreement and in celebration, I popped open the Dr. Pepper.

***

A ring of the doorbell announced the arrival of the adorable green dinosaur we've been looking for.

"Hi you guyz!" Yoshi squealed. He ran from the front door over to us and gave us a ginormous, super-tight, dinosaur hug. Kirby, being round, slipped from his grasp immediately.

"Oof!" he exclaimed, hitting the floor.

"Yoshi, let go of me." I said, my voice straining to be heard. Yoshi still kept his grip.

"Yoshi, I know your my friend; you can let go now." I managed to say. It was no use.

"Yoshi, I'm choking!" No point in wasting my breath.

"Yoshi, I'm dying!"

Suddenly, Yoshi let go of me and started bawling on top of my lungs.

"Pikachoo died!" Yoshi cried.

"Yoshi, I was only joking!" (At least, I thought I was.)

"Oh, you ah alive!" Yoshi squeaked and scooped me up into another round of choking.

"Okay, that's enough." Kirby said, rushing to my defense.

"Oh-kay!" Yoshi dropped me. I gasped for air, eagle-sprawled on the floor. Kirby watched me with a frown planted on my face.

"What should we do now?" Kirby said slowly, shifting his attention from me to Yoshi.

"We go weed Wink's diah-wee!" He suggested brightly.

"Does Link even have a diary?" Kirby turned to me with a questioning look. I, who knew Link the most of all three of us, revealed the answer.

Yes.

I was later standing outside Link's bedroom door. I knocked.

"Can I come in?" I called. A muffled "hmmph!" was all the permission I needed. However, Link was not pleased when he saw me.

"I told you to go away." he turned his back on me.

"What happened to the seven-year old that took me home?" I asked.

"Just leave me alone." he groaned, annoyed with me.

"Hey," I brightened, seeing his homework on his desk, "I can help you do your homework."

"I doubt it." Link said bluntly. I hopped on top of his desk.

"Math homework, eh?" I observed, "But I thought you said this stuff was easy!"

"This is harder math okay?" he said, exasperated, "Now leave me alone." I did not like his attitude, but I remained calm.

"The answer to number six is seven." I stated. Link checked over the problem.

"How did you know?" he said after he confirmed my answer was right.

"I saw the answer." I said matter-of-factly.

"I knew you wouldn't know." he mumbled softly, but I heard.

"Whoa, time out! Are you saying I'm a _stupid_ rat?" I asked Link. He sighed in exasperation, and said,

"If you can prove that you are as smart as you are as smart you think you are, no."

Determined to prove him wrong, I looked upon the next problem.

_Five times a number plus three times the sum of a negative number and one is 35._

"The answer is sixteen." I proclaimed. Link highly doubted I got it right, but checked it over anyways. You can check it over too.

I peeked through a drawer in the desk and reached into it. I pulled out my hand and closed it quietly before Link saw me.

"The answer is seventeen." he said.

"No! You must have done something wrong!" I cried.

"I did not!" Link said defiantly.

"No look; you've forgot to multiply one by three." I pointed out to the equation, "Then, you subtract three from both sides and you get thirty-two. Thirty-two divided by two is sixteen." I punctuated my sentence with a sharp "ha!".

"Okay, you got it right – _now_ can you leave?" Link pleaded.

"Oh-kee-day, pink potato! Hasta la vista!" I said, saluting to him before backing out the door. Once I was out, I ran all the way to Kirby's room.

"Did you get it?" Kirby asked. I pulled the small, leather-bound book from behind my back. I was so fast in taking it out of the drawer, not only Link did not notice its theft, but also I had forgotten to mention it earlier.

For a boy, Link wrote a whole bunch in his diary. I found nothing about Zelda, however; the content was just everyday stuff: troubles at school, hunting, sword practice. I was disappointed – until I read an entry for last week. Apparently he did not like the fact he had fallen in love, but he finally gotten over it.

Mission accomplished.

However, I felt bad reading his diary. First of all, he took me in and this is how I repay him. Secondly, Link didn't want anyone else to know, including himself until now. And Link also really, _really_ likes Zelda – no, like is a too light of a term; LOVES Zelda, but has trouble communicating with her. Now, I actually felt sorry for the guy.

Kirby, on the other hand, was about to throw-up.

"Kirby! What's wrong with loving someone?" I scolded, "Don't be so mean!" Kirby is _easily_ grossed out – he may have a large stomach, but not as mighty.

"Sorry, but will you excuse me for a moment?" Kirby pardoned himself, and hobbled off to use the bathroom. Here is something to note: Kirby only goes into the bathroom to hide from somebody, to wash his hands, to take a bath, or to puke. I guess this time Kirby hurled, or else he would have flushed the toilet for no other reason.

"Oh, po-uh Wink." Yoshi sighed, "Do you think I should give him a hug?"

Sure... That's exactly what he needs.

"I dunno, perhaps I think I'll try to get them together to help – er – Link, I guess." I said, rather unsure of myself.

"I help too!" Yoshi volunteered, although I was pretty sure that he had no clue what the heck was going on.

"I might as well." Kirby mumbled, obligingly.

"Okay, go Team Super-cool!" I said, punching a fist into the air.

"I don't wike that name!" Yoshi complained.

"Then what name do _you_ propose, then?" I posed my body akimbo-style.

"I know – wet us sing da ow-fabet!" Yoshi squealed, "A, B, C, F, G, H..."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kirby commented. We listened to Yoshi drone on with the alphabet. When reciting the alphabet with his sing-song voice, he always start with A, B, C, and ends with Y, for some reason (perhaps that his name starts with Y). The rest you can put in a slot machine and watch random letters pop up.

"Now you know my A, B, C, Z, F, J, L..." Yoshi went on for another round.

"Maybe we can use our names." Kirby finally said, after pausing to watch Yoshi rock in his seat, holding his feet.

"Sure – it's the Kirbypikachuyoshi team." I rejected.

"... K, P, Y!" Yoshi sang.

"Wait, wait – what?" I said, not believing what I heard.

"Now you know my -"

"Yoshi, did you say PYK?" I asked.

"He said 'KPY'." Kirby pointed out.

"Fine, KPY." I said, "Did you say KPY?"

"Did I say that?" Yoshi wondered, still rocking from side to side, back and forth.

"Yeah." Kirby said for him.

"Oh, okay!" and Yoshi tipped over, asleep. You're going to have to get used to this scene, because Yoshi falls dead asleep at random moments; only he knows he knows why – strike that, _nobody_ knows why.

If we used our names for the team name, then how can we fit it so it doesn't sound as long and stupid as "Kirbypikachuyoshi" (no offense to Kirby). KPY, KPY – why did I even mention that in the first place?

And then I remembered.

"That's it!" I shouted, a "EUREKA!" expression lighting my eyes up.

"What's _it_?" Kirby asked.

"That's our team name! KPY! K is for you, P is for me, and Y is for Yoshi! We use our first initials!" I explained, and Kirby nodded in approval.

"HOO-WAY!" Yoshi squealed, as if he did not fall asleep at all. He grinned at me and Kirby, straight and tall. Me and Kirby looked at each other, confused, but shrugged.

"Guys," I said to the other two, "you are my best friends, and -"

"Am I your bess fend?" Yoshi asked innocently. Despite his size, he still possessed those sparkling puppy-eyes. I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"I just said that," I said, "Well -"

"We-uh-wee?" Yoshi asked, giving me baby-eyes.

"Really, really." I confirmed.

"Ah you sure?" Yoshi asked, suspiciously.

"I'm absolutely, positively, very, very, sure." I said, exasperated.

"Oh-kay!" Yoshi grinned.

"Anyways, you guys are my absolutely, positively, very, very, best friends, and my only best friends." I continued, "We will do this Operation-Help-Link together as the KPY!"

"We should do something in promise to always protect each other." Kirby advised.

"We should make a vow." I said, and placed my hand in the center of our little triangle formation. Kirby stuck his hand on top of mine and Yoshi plunked down his heavy foot on top of our delicate hands.

"Ow! Yoshi, use your hand!" I said through gritted teeth. Yoshi took his foot off, and placed his hand on top of ours. We waited for someone to say something.

"What do we do?" I asked. There was a short silence, then broken by Kirby.

"I'll start." he volunteered, and began. Our vow went like this:

TWO YOU AND ME

TIED TOGETHER,

LIKE A BUNCH OF WHEAT,

BOUND BY LEATHER,

EXCEPT FOR A ROPE

EVEN STRONGER,

NEVER BROKEN,

NEVER LOOSENED.

I PUT MY LIFE

BEHIND YOURS,

I WILL TEND OUR ROPE

TIED BY THIS VOW,

IT'S ALGEBRAIC EQUATION

K+P+Y

NOW AND FOREVER.

Kirby finished, taking a quick breath.

"Well," I said, surprised, "look who's the poet."

"Oh be quiet and say it." he said. We obeyed, and quietly chanted the binding words back.

"What happens if we break it?" Kirby asked, once we finished.

"We lose our names." I said, thinking aloud ideas from the top of my head, "Our names is our identity; we lose our names, we lose who we are." I finished. Kirby and Yoshi nodded, accepting the pact. There was a pause. I broke the silence.

"Now who is ready for dinner?!"


	10. Captain Falcon's Lawn and Other Problems

**Captain Falcon's Lawn and Other Problems**

We were all seated at dinner, even with Mario and Luigi, who were usually walking about the dining room serving food or cooking in the kitchen.

"Thank-a you for inviting us, Sammy." Mario acknowledged her. She nodded back. As being Samus's older brother (it _is_ strange, I know, I live with it and so can you), Mario does not settle with Samus; he calls her Sammy, or Samantha (her real name) when she puts a toe beyond the line that Mario drew.

"Sammy, this is pretty good cooking for what I know you usually do." Mario complimented his younger sister. My mouth popped open – normally, Samus's cooking is like a glue like substance that is supposed to be mashed potatoes.

"Actually," Luigi interrupted, raising a hand in recognition, " I made ze dinner tonight."

"Oh, then ze the dinner is terrible!" Mario exclaimed, disgusted, placing down his fork. We would all think that Mario and Luigi were tight, close brothers, but they heavily criticize each other's cooking at frequent intervals.

"Samantha," Luigi scolded, ignoring his older brother's comment, "take-a off that aluminum foil and wear-a something decent for-a once." He gestured to the armor ladened woman.

"And by golly, eat-a dinner with the family! You are skinny enough!" Mario tutted, pointing to the untouched plate of linguine in front of her. Samus just shook her helmeted head, and said something about needing to leave soon. Samus was usually absent, due to her bounty hunting, and kept her armor on mostly, even at home (I wouldn't be surprised if she actually slept with it). She was either gone, or about to leave, so the power suit stays on. But there are some drawbacks; one time, she was driving Link, Zelda, and Kirby home from school with her cannon still clasped to her right arm, she accidentally blasted a plasma ball right through the engine of the car while fumbling with the steering wheel.

Her poor husband – not only Captain Falcon has to replace the car, he also has to replace his lawn very often. In our backyard, there is a huge expanse of lawn, then a field, then the forest. Of the three, the lawn was the smallest, but it still was a hefty piece of land. What was sad about the lawn was the fact it had never lasted for more than half a year. There is always an event that wrecks the Cap'n Falcon's lawn, never failing to show up. This time, the tragedy happened to be Yoshi. I suppose he got carried away in his grazing (he is fond of a quiet afternoon with a mouthful of tender greens), because he trimmed the lawn down a little _too_ far. Captain Falcon yelled at Yoshi (for obvious reasons), and then Mario and Luigi yelled right back for the dinosaur because the fertilizer in the grass made Yoshi's tummy sick. Arguing shot back and forth, and in the end, there was always this grumbling person everywhere you go – including yourself.

Yoshi was whimpering, clutching his stomach.

"Ooh! My tummy hurt!" Yoshi moaned. I hoped he did not have a bathroom problem; the last time that happened, Yoshi ended up having poop spewing out of his diaper, and the wretched liquid was all over the house. It was a good thing that Mario and Luigi showed up and cleared the Castle.

"Do you need soup, Yoshi?" I asked, gently. When Yoshi had stomach problems, Mario or Luigi gave some soup to him.

"I wan soup." Yoshi whimpered, and waddled off to the kitchen.

Kirby said he wanted to be alone for a little while, so I left him in his room. There was still adults, Link and Ness at the dinner table, so I joined the adult conversation. The adults were there to socialize, Ness was smart enough to join in the fray, and Link was there because Zelda just walked into the room.

"So, how's Kiuhbee doing in school?" Mario asked Link, trying to make small talk with his older nephew. Link just mumbled.

"He's the best student in all of his classes." Ness stated, "I looked up his grade on the Internet."

"Now, now," Luigi said, suspiciously, "do you mean to tell me you hacked onto the teacher's roster and compared each students' grades?"

"Well, not really..." Ness said, flushing with embarrassment. I, however, knew he did it because I watched him do so after he comes home from school.

"I think Link's pet rat is smarter than him." Ness piped up.

"Shut up." Link muttered threateningly.

"What are you talking about, _pet rat?_" I yelled; I absolutely hate being called a pet – it made me feel inferior and stupid.

"Sorry, Pikachu." Ness apologized, "Well, anyways, Pikachu is just as smart as Link – or even smarter." I smiled in embarrassment, and pride.

"Oh, she should-a go to school and-a get herself an education!" Mario exclaimed.

"You want to send a _rat_ to school? You have to be joking me." Link said, disbelieving. I also was not believing what I heard, but a different statement; I was raging in burning fury.

"Hey!" I faced Link and let my glare bore into his eyes, "If Kirby can go to school, so can I!" I was not about to be segregated just because I was a rodent, especially by Link. I can do his homework and read twice as fast as he can.

"I think that Pikachu can go to school," Mario said, scratching his chin, "we just-a need to apply her – and-a use heavy persuasive skills."

It turned out that I had to sign a whole bunch of paperwork and take a test. A week later, I was accepted. I was sorting through school items with Kirby.

"Do I have to carry those huge binders every period?" I asked, thinking of myself stumbling through a crowd of teenagers behind a teetering pile of over-sized books.

"Well, you are going to be carrying these." Kirby handed me a binder for index cards and a spiral-bound index cards booklet.

"Will I get a locker?" I dropped my stack.

"You'll be sharing one with me." Kirby said, simply.

"Do people have allergies in your class?" I asked, worried whether or not my new classmates will break down in hives.

"Yeah; there's this guy who can't eat nuts -"

"I mean that is there someone allergic to me." I restated.

"There is one on the bus, but none in my classes, though." Kirby answered.

"Do we have to wear a uniform?" I thought aloud.

"Do you see me wearing any clothes?" Kirby said, raising his arms and looked down on his body, and looked up with a _duh_ look. I shook my head.

"Good." Kirby packed his bag and plopped it on the ground.

That night, I thought about school. It seemed okay, but I was nervous. It can't be _that_ bad, I said to myself. Dismissing the subject, I punched my pillow into a more comfortable shape, and closed my eyes.

* * *

**Remember what Pikachu said about animals living together with people? Well, she forgot to mention the fact that animals ONLY work together with people in secret agencies, like the FBI and the CIA. Animals still are segregated, sadly.**

**Pikachu: You got that right, sister! What happened to animal rights?  
**


	11. The Bully on the Bus

**I am really, really, really, _really_ sorry that I couldn't write sooner! My school stuff kept me busy! Anyone who has still clung on, hoping to read more about Pikachu's life, you are rewarded! Enjoy!**

**

* * *

  
**

**The Bully on the Bus Gets Smack, Smack, Smacked!**

Okay, the school was great; the bus – not so great. My first bus experience wasn't pretty.

It was early in the morning when the bus arrived at the bus stop. I was extremely tired and didn't have the best of dreams last night. The bus odor woke me up instantly, however. It smelled like a mixture of perspiration and urine, which was totally gross. I grimaced in disgust.

Kirby and I took a seat that was around the middle, where the top of the back wheel pokes out and into the passengers' leg area. Kirby got the window seat, and I sat next to him - but I had my view over Kirby's head. I kept my eyes on the window until he came.

Exactly who?

The bully. He was fat, but that fat was hard fat that made a hard collision when he punched someone. He was like an American sumo wrestler practically, and his name was Jason. The Jason guy clambered onto the bus (I bet it sunk so low to the ground, but for some reason, it didn't pop) and squeezed through the aisle of the bus's Fat Man's Misery.

"Don't make eye contact." Kirby said quietly, gesturing to put my head down.

"Why?" I asked.

"That dude can throw someone across five seats – or for us, ten." Kirby whispered.

"He threw someone across five seats?" I whispered, disbelieving.

"Yeah."

"Who was the poor kid?"

"Link." Kirby whispered even softer.

"Huh?" I exclaimed, and Kirby shushed me. "Why doesn't Link beat the living daylights out him? I know he can!"

"Because you're not supposed to fight on the bus." Kirby hissed, "he would get in deep doo-doo if he did try to fight back."

"Well, if he isn't going to," I said, hopping out of my seat, "I am."

"No!" Kirby grabbed the scruff of my neck and pulled me back into my seat. Glumly, I watched the bully toss someone into another seat.

"Why isn't anybody doing anything about it?" I asked.

"Everybody is too scared." Kirby replied simply.

"Not me!" I said sharply and coughed in recognition.

"Well, I know not you," Kirby rolled his eyes, "but people don't want to get in trouble."

"Then someone tell the bus driver, for pity's sake!" I cried in exasperation.

"And have Jason clobber you later? Not likely." Kirby said.

"And _you_ are afraid?" I asked.

"No," Kirby answered, "but it might involve me trying to fight back."

"Arrgh!" I tried to throttle my annoyed state, "Kirby, you are such a teacher's pet, did you know that? If someone's not going to do anything, then I am, even if I get expelled – who cares?"

"I'm trying to get an education here!" Kirby yelled right back.

"People are going to get hurt!" I retorted.

"That's why I'm trying to think of something!" Kirby stuck his face so close to mine, I could see the blue fire in his eyes flaring. I flattened my ears in surprise and winced at the ear-piercing tone.

The bus rode along. I heard some shouting at the back of the bus, but the little old lady that was driving must have popped out her hearing-aid.

"Um, ma'am?" I asked for her attention. The lady plowed along at a half-a-mile per hour.

"Ma'am?" I tried again. This time, the driver saw me and screamed. The bus careened and tilted as the great-grandma stepped on the gas pedal. Everyone was screaming and being tossed around by the jerky steerings (perhaps not the bully – I suppose his width had him wedged safely in his seat.)

The bus was finally pulled over by the police. The guy stepped onto the bus, took one look at me and announced,

"There are to be no animals allowed on this bus! All of you know that rule, and now who thought it would be funny to bring their pet rat to school?!"

"If rats are not equal to human beings, then buses should drive rocks to school!" I stood, shouting in defiance, my temper flaring from being mentioned as a pet again, "No wonder it's 'all men are created equal'! What about _us!_" I pointed at myself. The cop staggered backwards, surprised.

"I-it's talking!" he stuttered.

"You bet I'm talking!" I said through gritted teeth.

"Who's pet is this?" The cop said, trying to ignore my statements. I decided that I had enough with this guy. I dug around in my schoolbag and threw my signed paperwork in his face.

"MY NAME IS PIKACHU!" I roared, "AND I'M ONE HUNDRED PERCENT STUDENT!" I shook the paperwork, and he took it, not believing a word I said. The smug face that he had once wore grew grimmer and grimmer once he figured out that I was telling the truth.

"Fine!" he huffed, tossing the paper back at me, "But I can easily penalize you for yelling at a police official like that!"

"No, you can't!" I defied him, "Samus can penalize _you_ for threatening a student by calling her a pet!" Some spit sprayed from my mouth as I emphasized the "p" in pet. The cop just glared at me and left the bus. I watched him drive off in his car, and then turned to the old lady, who was looking at me, terrified and trembling in her seat.

"I think you need to retire." I advised her gently.

We made it to school unharmed, although people nearly tripped when the bus driver hurriedly ushered us off before dashing away in her yellow vehicle. We all just stared at the yellow dot, and then trudged off to class. In my homeroom and Kirby's homeroom, I was waiting for my new teacher to give me a seat. She pulled a desk next to Kirby's, told me to sit in it, and asked for Kirby to explain how the class functioned. It turned out that Kirby is a teacher's pet; he always tried to please the teachers, never said a cross word about them, and made big one-double-o's in all of his classes – including the weird class of D.O. Fences.

I live in a small town in Illinois, where school is different than most due to isolation. We have four main courses, and two electives to participate in that alternates everyday – one day we have our main lessons, and one elective, and then the next day the same except with the other elective. But this is not the weird part; the weird part is the fact that this school is one of the oldest, and yet has the most modern technology in any school I have been to. The classes I take are highly advanced; I create computer graphics in computer class, and I blow up glass containers and frolic with fire in science. Sure you might eventually end up doing these courses, but I'm a five year old in the middle school world.

It was lunch time and Link, Kirby, and I were sitting at a table. Zelda went off to sit with a bunch of her friends. You'd expect Link to be popular too, but this is a small town with little variety in race. People here descended from families who lived in this town for many generations, and are not used to exposure to new culture. Being half Italian, Link is shunned. I don't see anything wrong with that, though – I, for one, think Italians are cool, and their pasta are just as fine. However, not too many people around here share my idea.

"Link?" I asked. He bobbed his head, so I asked, "How come everybody likes Zelda, and she is completely Italian?" This was true, for both of her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents, and their parents, and their parents'-parents, and their parents'-parents, and their parents'-parents'-parents, and their parents'-parents'-parents'-parents, and their parents'-parents'-parents'-parents'-uncle's mom were from Italy. We do not want to go in depth further, so on with the day.

"Maybe she's just nice." Link mumbled quietly.

"Maybe she's just nice-looking." Kirby said, and we both laughed.

"Do you think she's nice-looking too?" I asked as innocently as I could. Link just turned slightly pink in the face and looked down to the ground. Kirby whipped out his notebook, scribbled something in, and hid it away.

"Link?" I asked again.

"Just leave me alone." He said, and bit into his sandwich.

Probably the most interesting class the school had to offer was the D.O. Fences. There were boy and girl locker rooms, where the students dress into more comfortable, flexible clothing – er human students, that is. Me and Kirby went our separate ways. I managed to find the door that leads to the gymnasium. I pushed the oversized, double-doored doorway with my two little arms, and walked into the largest room in the school. The walls were padded with blue mats, with more stacks to spread out onto the floor if needed. I saw the class standing in a corner, so I went to join them. Kirby beat me to the class. Donned with a red band wrapped tightly around his head – well, above his eyes, since Kirby's head is not segmented from his body.

"Kirby, can I ask you something?" I tapped him on the top of his "head".

"You already did." Kirby replied, without turning around.

"I mean, can I ask you another question?" I asked.

"You already did."

"Arrgh! You know what I mean!" I cried in exasperation.

"Okay, okay," Kirby finally turned around and began ushering for me to be quiet, "Jeesh! Take it easy, will you?" I just looked at the ground sheepishly, and shrugged.

"Okay, what's the question, then?" Kirby asked.

"Umm... I think I lost my train of thought."

"Oh, great." Kirby sighed.

"No wait!" I said, putting a hand to my forehead, "It's coming back to me! I can – now I'm lost." I pouted.

"It will come back to you." Kirby said reassuringly. For some odd coincidence, it did right after he said so.

"Who would name this class D.O. Fences?" I said, looking at around at the mats, "I mean, it's just Phys-Ed."

"Not exactly," Kirby looked around, "This course is technically Defense and Offense, but we cut it down to D.O. Fenses."

"What do we do here?" I asked.

"We fight."

***

The instructors paired us off, and I was stuck with a stranger, apparently a follower of the bus bully.

"Try to go easy on her – she's new around here." an instructor patted the guy on the shoulder and whispered softly so I might not be able to hear – but I have very keen hearing, being of rodent descent. The boy just nodded and cracked his knuckles.

"Well, well," he drawled, "you are just gonna fall _short_ on the class standards."

"Hey! Don't make fun of my size!" I yelled defiantly up at him. He only laughed.

"Aww! The poor little baby wabbit is scared!" He mimicked a baby voice.

"I'm not a rabbit, you know." I said, but he kept laughing. I crouched and bared my teeth in aggression.

"Aww! Did I hurt the little pet rat's feelings?"

That's when I lost it. I ran at full force, leaped off the floor, and slammed him in the guts with my head. He stumbled backwards as I bounced back from his stomach, flipped backwards, and landed on all fours, sporting my pearly whites. I felt like the tiger I was about five years ago when I ate soap. It was a savage-sort-of-thing, not normally me – but it felt good.

I dodged a swing from the dude's fat fist and lunged, spinning like a tornado. I remembered having fits, when I became so angry that sparks flew off my cheeks. This time, sparks did fly. Scratch that; _bolts_ of _lightning_ sprung from my face in a fury of light. I passed through the crook of his arm in a flash. It was so fast, to me, the world around me seemed to have slowed down. I landed neatly behind him; I looked back at my stunned competitor over my shoulder. He looked at me, blinking, and I gave him a sly smile.

"That's it!" he yelled. He took a bamboo pole that was hidden behind a stack of mats and charged at me. He raised it high over his left shoulder, and swung it diagonally to his right knee – a vicious attack towards me. I instantly bent backwards, so far back that my ears brushed the wooden floor. I say the pole slice through the air in slow motion as I felt the momentum of the weapon just passing above my body. It was the ultimate matrix. Even better, after I executed the perfect dodge, I quickly pushed off the ground with my forelimbs and snapped my paddle-like tail on the back of the guy's hand. He let go of the pole, and it clattered on the arena floor; I back-flipped once, did three-sixty sideways spin, and landed on the floor with three limbs planted on the ground, and one held out for smooth balance. The other classmates had stopped fighting to see what was going on with my pair. I look amidst the crowd of witnesses, and spotted Link, who looked back. He nodded, and slowly, so slowly, pulled his lips into a smile – something he didn't give to me for years. Was he proud of me?

That moment did not last long. My head snapped to the direction of a laugh from the crowd.

"Can't beat her, Jeff? You're such a wimp to loose to a little bunny wabbit!" It was the bully from my demented bus. Jeff gritted his teeth, picked up the bamboo pole and growled. I, on the other hand, rolled my eyes from annoyance of being misinterpreted as a "wabbit."

"That's enough!" Everyone's head turned to the direction of the main instructor. We have to mentors, but this person was the one in charge. He walked over and snatched the pole from Jeff's hands, and placed it back behind the mats, where the other poles were. He then turned to me.

"Impressive." was all he said. I just shrugged modestly and stared at his shoes.

"You fought better than I thought you would – surely this can't be your first time, can't it?" he calmly commented.

"Actually, I have never really fought up to this scale before." I looked up and into his gray eyes, and he simply stared down upon me.

"Where do you learn your techniques?" he asked softly.

"Err..." I thought, not really sure – I mean, I spent my school-less days developing my electrical skills, "I guess I made my own style, and Kirby and Link helped out with the punching and kicking part." The instructor nodded slowly in understanding.

"Ha! You mean that pink – OW!" Kirby slapped Jason in the shin. Jason raised his fist, ready to slug Kirby.

"That's enough!" the man looked over to Jason, "Besides, I wouldn't pick on Kirby if I were you."

"Yeah!" I agreed fiercely.

"Ooh, the little copy cat – or rat?" the bully sneered, "Hey, I remember you; you're Link's pet, ri -" Suddenly, Kirby turned around, jumped and kicked Jason hard in the stomach, and sent him flying across the arena. Several classmates made "Oh!"s and winced in pain for Jason. The instructor just rolled his eyes and shook his head. I could tell this wasn't the first time.

"I said enough!" He shouted, as Jason got ready to pummel Kirby, "Go back to your lockers and clean them out – class dismissed!" Everybody started filing out of the gym – well, almost everybody. I stood there, blinking. The man turned around and saw me still there; I blinked, noticing him, and out of confusion I plunked down on my bum. There was an awkward silence.

"Are classes always like this?" I broke the silence. The man sighed and said, "Usually, but not always."

"Isn't it a pain in the butt?" I asked, not minding my language.

"It is." he replied, perhaps not noticing my bluntness.

"Then why teach?" I cocked my head to one side.

"In the end, the students wind up with good results – well, we can exclude the arrogant and non-attentive ones." He explained slowly; he walked to an open door, paused and looked back at me.

"Anyways, I will see you day after tomorrow." he went into the room and closed the door.

"Wait!" the man opened the door again and poked his head out, "Am I in trouble?"

"No," He laughed, "what makes you think so?"

"You said 'I will see you day after tomorrow'."

"Oh, well there's school on Friday, and electives alternates, so..."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little stupid, "Okay, I get it now." The bell rang, and I jumped at the sudden noise.

"Bye!" I yelled and sprinted out of the arena in a flash. I ran through the girls' locker room in a blur, grabbing my school belongings along the way. It didn't matter if I had cut through the grass, for no one really saw me (I was that fast – I was like the wind). My priority was to find Kirby.

"Pikachu!" I felt a jerk and I was flung back, and my binders spilled out of my arms. Kirby let go the scruff of my neck.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, rubbing my sore neck, "How did you see me?"

"I sharp eyes," Kirby explained quickly, "Don't _ever_ do that again!" Kirby shook my shoulders.

"What?" I said, annoyed.

"That!" Kirby pointed to something behind me. I turned around to see what it was.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to the grass?!" There was the perfect green grass, all delicate and pretty. Cutting right through it was a gash of brown topsoil, with bits of grass clippings left laying in the wound.

"Who would do such a thing?" I gasped. Kirby picked a grass clipping off my foot and held it up to me.

"You tell me." he said, and tossed it away.

We got a new bus driver. Luckily, I didn't get in trouble from scaring the old lady because technically, you are not supposed to scream at the students, no matter how ugly or furry they are.

The new bus driver went off the bus to talk to another of his colleagues – there is the first mistake. The second mistake was done by Kirby and I – we sat in the back of the bus. I felt hot breath on the back of my neck. _Not good..._ I thought.

"So, Pinky, you thought you could get away from kicking me in the gym? Well, your not so tough now without the teacher watching over you, eh?" Jason reached out to pick up Kirby (having abnormally large hands), but Kirby swatted it away absentmindedly.

"Oh, you think I'm cracking a joke?" This time, the bully _did_ pick up Kirby and was ready to chuck him out of the window.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled, my fists shaking.

"As if you can stop me." Jason snorted. I went into the aisle so my fist could reach him properly, but then a heavy, smelly sneaker came down on my back, so I was scrambling to breath. Combined with the weight and the hugeness of the foot (I _swear_ that guy wears size a hundred), the odds in favor of me escaping were zero to infinity.

"Get your smelly foot off of her!" a voice called. I peered up and saw Link's boots. Why was Link standing up for me, _especially_ when this guy had thrown him across five seats?

"Stay outta this, Pizza-boy!"

I exploded. Somehow, even though the probability was zero, I slipped out from under the fat foot and lunged. I pulled back my fist and the swung in upwards in a pay-off, ramming it under his double-chin. I retracted my arm, and spun with a foot outstretched to one side, The foot came in contact with his flabby face – a nice kick across that surprised look. Noticing that the roof of the bus was about to greet me with a harsh welcome, I flipped so that my feet met the metal and I pushed off of the surface. I landed on the back of the seat in front of Jason. Giving him one last smile, I turned on my heel, and smacked his cheek with my tail. I dropped into my seat in satisfaction.

"Let go of me!" I heard a slapping sound and Kirby plopped into the space next to me.

"Slapping is for suckers." The bully said lamely.

"Oh, perfect! Just what suckers like you need!" Kirby threatened, his blue eyes flashing dangerously.

"Why you little..." The bully raised a fist.

"Hey you!" the bully looked up to see the bus driver pointing angrily at him, "Come up front where I can see you clearly!" He pointed to the seat behind his.

"But these -" he began to whine, and pointing at us – too bad we're too short for the driver to see.

"NOW!" I grinned smugly as the sumo made his way to the front, grumbling under his breath. Kirby chuckled.

"Up high, Pikachu!" Kirby and I high-fived.

And so despite the putrid smell of the bus (and its equally revolting bully!), the complicated homework and funky classes, today has been a very promising start to my first school year.

* * *

**Yay or Nay? Rate and Review! **

**_Finally_ we are starting to see Pikachu's talents!  
**


	12. The Impossible Made Possible By

**The Impossible Made Possible By...**

Twas the first weekend of my school year, and I was spending it high above the Earth. If I was ever depressed or stressed, the Castle in the Air was definitely my somewhere over the rainbow – literally. Not that bluebirds fly at these altitudes; no, it's us who are flying. We, the KPY, were soaring on warpstars provided by Kirby. Yoshi zoomed ahead, laughing hysterically as normal.

"You wanna race?" I yelled, "Then eat my dust!" I leaned down low close to the star's glossy surface and rapidly sped forward, gaining on Yoshi bit by bit. When I was so close that I could reach out and touch his wiggling green tail, something all of a sudden spun me off course.

"The only person that is going to eat your dust is you, Pikachu!" Kirby cackled and zoomed off, a sonic boom echoed in the blue yonder. I huffed in frustration and too, sped away, a sonic boom chasing the wisps of clouds flowing behind me. Kirby was soon in sight, so I gathered all the speed I could muster. I was brought close to the pink puffball – so close, we were neck and neck, racing towards the finish. I spotted the characteristic cloud that was shaped like a mushroom, the landmark of the finish line. The two of us turned our heads to glare at each other.

"Give up; first place is reserved for me!" I jeered.

"Can't," Kirby retorted, "my name was on it ever since I existed." I laughed, and leaned forward more to reduce drag, an advantage I have over the round Kirby. Yet, Kirby still kept the tie. We sped faster and faster until we both crossed the finish line. I raced round the mushroom cloud and slowed to a stop.

"I win!" I grinned at Kirby.

"No you did not!" Kirby defied, hovering on his star, "I passed the line first!"

"Noooooooo!" a squeaky voice called, "I did." We turned to see Yoshi resting on a cloud, drumming his feet in anticipation. Duh! I remember seeing him speed off, and I had forgotten about him until now.

"Deed I ween?" Yoshi eyes watered, lip trembling, as he drew out the vowels. You had to be careful with what you say around Yoshi, for he is very sensitive.

"Of course you did," I said firmly. Kirby nodded.

"Ah you sure?" Yoshi asked suspiciously.

"Affirmative." I assured. Yoshi grinned in delight.

"I hungee! I wan a beh-wee tawt!" Yoshi exclaimed, as if he didn't remember winning a race at all. He zoomed away to the Castle in the Air, leaving us behind. Kirby slowly flew towards the Castle and I followed.

"Let's test your geography." Kirby said, almost at random. I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh-kee-day." I agreed, a little hesitant with the random question.

"If I am facing north, what would be on my right hand?" Kirby asked, holding out his arms to the side.

"Your fingers?" I said automatically. Kirby looked at his stubby hands.

"I don't have fingers." he said bluntly.

"Oh, my bad – I forgot." I excused myself sheepishly.

"So,what's your favorite class?" Kirby asked. I thought for a moment, tapping my finger against my chin as my nose pointed upwards in thought.

"I guess I like D.O. Fenses." I concluded, thinking about the only class I get to beat the crud out of the people who annoy me.

"Really? So do I." Kirby exclaimed happily.

"How many weeks till winter break?" I asked – even though there is D.O. Fenses, and funny bits and pieces at school, the classwork was wearisome.

"Four – we're going to take our exams soon." Kirby sighed, "Man, I wished school went by faster."

"Me too." I agreed heartily.

"Hey, you only been in school for a week!"

"So." I snorted. Kirby rolled his eyes and shook himself. I chuckled to myself, and swooped my gaze to fix on Mario.

"Hi Mar – AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I nearly fell off the warpstar out of shock. Mario was standing a few feet away from the edge of the patio where it hangs over high above the clouds. Despite this, the Italian man was happily pruning the bushes that lined the patio while practically – well, I suppose NOTHING. Mario walked to another bush while still in mid-air. Kirby and I couldn't help but stare.

"What, do I have-a something on my-a shoe?" Mario asked, seeing us just staring blankly back at him. He lifted one of his shoes to examine it, and I expected him to topple out of the sky. Mario just shrugged after seeing nothing gross on the bottom of his shoe, and placed his foot firmly back down on nothing.

You can expect many odd happenings from Mario and Luigi. I grew up knowing they did crazy things, like the time Luigi was upside-down on the ceiling, fixing a leak in Samus's house. There was also that other time when Luigi "accidentally" pushed Mario out a window at the Castle, and then Mario suddenly appears behind Luigi a second later and pushed him. What also causes these odd happenings is the fact they take many idioms and metaphors literally. When I first came to the Castle, I told you about the surround sound system, where there are tiny speakers almost everywhere. They made it rain cats and dogs over Italy, and they had made a mountain out of a molehill they found in the forest below the Castle (the mole wasn't too happy about it). Recently, Captain Falcon had found a potato under one of the couch cushions. Mario reassured his brother in law that Ness was not stashing away unwanted food, but told him that he really wanted to see if potatoes could actually grow on furniture. Pretty soon, we'll have to harvest the first season's couch potatoes.

Even though the brothers did many weird things, they creating interesting handiworks as well. The Castle was once a cottage floating a few feet off the ground, and ever since Mario and Luigi took charge of taking care of the house under their parents' will, they expanded the dimensions. Now the once small cottage was now a huge castle thousands of feet in the air, so high you have to look down to see the sun set. Even more amazing, the whole Castle was built on a continuously mill made out of a large stone wheel, and an equally gargantuan stone table. The wheel is under the Castle, and then the table is under that. Mario and Luigi calls it "The Mill" and uses it to crush from grains, to cannonballs, to enormous, titanium commercial jets into thin paper or fine dust. That's how they get their fine flour, or metal sheets so easily. Despite The Mill's power, it is relatively small compared to what is balancing on top of it; it is like balancing the Taj Mahal on top of a rolling bowling ball except on a _much_ larger scale. It's amazing how all these tons of castle is balanced on a precarious point and also floating midair.

Another masterpiece Mario and Luigi have done was the Pipe System. If you go through the Pipes, you can just about go anywhere. The Pipes extend throughout the Earth (so much that we practically live on a huge ball of pipes) and also throughout the universe. There are so many openings – there are over a million known ends of the pipes, a third of what was built on the planet. The rest were covered by others or forgotten about. So there was three-million openings built on Earth, and that is one-hundredth of how many known openings throughout the universe. This time, Luigi lost count of how many pipes total were built in space. So many pipes that what looks like a man-hole that you fell into led you to Antarctica. Mario and Luigi are famed for being plumbers, but nobody knew about the ultimate plumbing that might as well be under their feet. It is a very intricate creation – so complex that the map can get you lost. Anyhow, we use it everyday. I already told you the Castle in the Air is huge, so just walking in it is not really going to get you anywhere. So, the Pipe System was also installed in the Castle. Sometimes, I can go to specific toilets inside the house an I flush myself down one, and I pop out of another (hopefully one that someone is not sitting on!).

In addition to Mario and Luigi making the impossible possible, there are also two other people. Yoshi has a habit of walking in air over our heads, appearing on the chandelier at one moment at dinner while a second before he was right next to me scarfing down a berry tart. The dinosaur is also blessed with super strength and speed – yesterday, he was running around in the clouds holding a Boeing jet so fast I thought jet was flying by itself, until I saw Yoshi with his legs blurred with speed; grinning, he shot off still holding that jet, with a sonic boom echoing through the clouds. He also has the habit of wrecking odd havocs. Just like Mario and Luigi, he also takes many sayings literally – every now and then, Ness will be running around with his pants on fire, with Yoshi screaming "LIAR!" while chasing the poor boy with a lighter in one green hand. With him, the green thumb is already taking care of, but he colored both of thumbs a sickly green while I was sleeping. To add on top of that, Yoshi blabbers on in random conversations and falls asleep at random points in time, only to awaken as if he was overdosed with caffeine.

There are two rules of thumb to know about Yoshi, just like I have two thumbs.

One: Yoshi must have his berry tarts in nine-minute intervals. If he doesn't, he goes into this berserk mode, where he forgets about everything. He's not throwing a tantrum – when his dinosaur parents gave Mario and Luigi their egg with Yoshi in it, they told them that this one had to have special sugars found in berries in order for his brain to function properly, as all yoshis did. The problem was that Yoshi's brain did not function like other yoshis. Firstly, yoshis have extremely acute sense of hearing, and the whole colony of dinosaurs are tuned to listen to each other. Mario and Luigi thinks that Yoshi's brain is actually tuned so keenly that he can hear random conversations from around the world. This explains why he randomly blabbers words the does not make logical sense with our conversation, but it perhaps does with someone from Singapore. Secondly, yoshis need berries or berry related products (none artificially flavored) every twelve hours at the most so they don't go berserk. Yoshi needs his berry tarts every nine minutes – if he doesn't have a berry tart in ten minutes, then he will wreck havoc.

Two: Yoshi loves his bling. Once his eye catches something sparkling or shining to his liking, he will crave for it. Yoshi once wanted to keep the sun in a box where he could look at it forever, but Mario said that it must be kept in space so everyone can enjoy it, so Yoshi forgot about taking the sun home. But every now and then, he will stare at the sun with longing in his eyes. Sometimes, his lust for sparklies will get him into trouble; he stole Peach's earrings, once, which resulted in a wild goose chase with Peach viciously swinging her pink umbrella for hours, until Luigi gave Peach new earrings. Another time, Mario and Luigi were crushing crystals with The Mill, and Yoshi nearly got squished from retrieving a small shard of quartz.

Three: I know I said two rules, so stop making a fuss about it. Third rule is that you must _never_ give Yoshi fried bananas. Never. The last time that happened, we were up to our necks in dirtied diapers, and diarrhea was spewed all over the Castle. I am not tempted to let that happen again.

The other person who does the impossible is a guy called Wario. We rarely see him at all – but you know he has been around if you smell the heavy scent of garlic, or if you see a slight green tinge in the air. So what's with the green tinge? Here's one seemingly impossible trait this guy has: his farts are colored. If we went into the science of farts, we would discover farts are colorless, and yet Wario farts green. It's not easy to be green, especially if you wish to have a social life. Wario can clear the room of people faster than an uncontrolled fire in a room – especially if Wario was in that same flame-filled room. Mario usually jokes (a little nervously) about how destructive a fart can be. The forest below the Castle has a nice clearing with a good-sized lake. He said that the forest used to be entirely forest, until Wario said he couldn't hold the pressure anymore. According to Mario, he let loose the pressure, so great that there was a great crater, and so much fart that there was a great, green mushroom cloud that hung over the spot for weeks, and that many of the plants and trees died around the crater. Eventually the methane cloud floated away, and rain over periods of time filled the basin, and life regrew around the lake. What's even scarier is the fact Mario said that's not Wario's worst. Thankfully, I haven't really seen him that much, but enough to generate rules of caution for you.

One: Don't ever get Wario mad. He may fart, or he may yell so loud that the whole Castle in the Air will flip upside down – considering the size of the Castle, that's scary.

Two: Don't stand in Wario's way – it makes him mad (look at number one)

Three: Don't plant potatoes in his favorite armchair; he will get mad (look at one)

Four: Don't bother Wario when he is in a bad mood – don't make it worse (one)

Five: Don't sing annoying songs around him – it irritates him (oh my, one again)

Six: Don't do anything to piss him off, and let's just leave it at that.

***

"I swear one of these days, Luigi is going to make a cell phone that you can stick your fist through." I said, watching Mario clip the last leaf before moving on to the next bush, still walking on thin air.

"Dude, it's almost as if they do everything that is not supposed to be possible." I thought out loud.

"Remember the welcome mat." Kirby reminded me. The welcome mat in front of the front door does not say "welcome", or "Home sweet home" as many portray, but it had this embroidered in it:

_**Expect the Unexpected**_

The problem was, I didn't know what to expect – everything at the Castle is a surprise.

It was Sunday night, and we were back in good ol' Illinois, eating tortellini that Mario and Luigi prepared for us. There was chatter amongst the dinner table, mostly in Italian. Mario and Luigi loved to talk, especially when it comes down to bickering about the latest news. According to Zelda, they were talking about some refrigerator, currently, jabbering away in Italian. All of a sudden, they stopped and asked me,

"So, how's-a school?"

"Fine." I said, through a mouthful of tortellini. Kirby slapped my hand from under the table, reminding me of my manners. I gave Kirby a stink-eye, chewed and swallowed before speaking again.

"School's fine." I commented, "I like the new bus driver – he's not afraid of rodents."

"That is good." Mario said.

"Yeah," I agreed, thinking about our previous bus driver, "that is good."

"Good night, peoplez!" Luigi called and disappeared down a green pipe.

"Where is he going?" I wondered, putting down my fork for a brief moment.

"He go home." Yoshi said, nibbling on a berry tart.

"And what is he going to do at home?"

"He's wuh-king." Yoshi replied, simply.

"Working on what?" I asked.

"I dunno." Yoshi said innocently, "But Wiji veh-wee bi-zee."

***

I was in my basket, stuffed with pillows and a blanket. This is where I had always slept, in a basket. Link had bought it for me years ago for me to sleep in. But I wasn't asleep – I was thinking.

"Kirby?" I called out. Kirby and I shared rooms, now.

"What?" he said drearily. Apparently I had woken him up.

"I was thinking: is school going to be boring for the rest of the year?" I continued, "I mean, the first few days are fun, but what else is there to do?"

"I don't know." Kirby sighed as he readjusted his sleeping cap (he sleeps with a hat on). I just sat in the dark, thinking.

"Wouldn't it be cool if Luigi invented a new kind of phone?"

"Good night, Pikachu." Kirby moaned.

"Oh, okay. Good night."

* * *

**I know, I know - this chapter nothing really happens. But I need to explain a few basic things before I move on in the story, because its really tedious to explain stuff in the middle.**

**Yay or Nay? Rate and Review! Thanks!  
**


	13. Expecting the Unexpected

**Expecting the Unexpected**

Who knew how many things can apply to the "expected unexpected". Firstly, Luigi had invented a new phone, but only one for himself for now (he said he still needed to work out the kinks). He says that this would be a "cool phone to-a have". He dubbed it the "i-Luigi", mistaking the famous iPod as a phone – being so isolated high above the ground, Mario and Luigi are cut off from the modern world. Aside from that, they are foreign to America, and can't extinguish each new product very will. For hours, we tried (and failed) to explain that a firearm was called a gun, not a plane.

Secondly, there was an exam in D.O. Fenses, an unexpected event for what written work is there to be tested on?

"Yes, there is an exam, for the last time." our instructor, Mr. Collech (I now know his name, but I call him Mr. C, for short).

"Is it a paper exam?" I asked, raising my short arm.

"Yes." he replied and everybody groaned.

"Hey, I'm only joking," Mr. C admitted, "but you do have to fill out paperwork."

"Why?" a person behind me asked.

"Just in case if you get injuries." Ms. Astatine said gently – she was our other instructor.

"Or if you die." Mr. C added, and Ms. Astatine shot a warning glare at him.

"I'm just kidding." He smiled, and she rolled her eyes. These two always joke around, and it makes me suspicious (well, they are two young, unmarried adults).

"Is it dangerous?" Zelda asked in her gentle tone.

"Well, if I said it wasn't, then I would lie," Mr. C said, "but not to worry, you will be split into groups of five to complete this exam." Mr. C started handing out the paperwork, "And if you cannot come, or your parents will not let you, inform me and I will give you something else to do." I scanned over the paperwork. Piece by piece, I put together the meaning of the exam.

"Mr. C?" I asked him.

"Yes?"

"What does running through the woods have to do with martial arts?" I continued my question. Mr. C looked up and thought for a moment before replying.

"It's a race, and a survival test." Mr. C explained, "I thought it would be more interesting than just fighting each other." It was, to me; the lure of adventure, the journey into the unknown awaited me, and I was eager to meet it.

"But we don't know anything about camping!" a student whined.

"It's not camping – well, at least not all of it." Mr. C corrected, "It is also a hiking, hunting, and if you come in contact with another group, fighting trip."

"Can we to kill each other?" The bus bully yelled. Everyone held their breaths, waiting for Mr. C's response.

"Only if you want to go to prison for the rest of your life and pay a whopping debt, sure you can – but it's against the rules."

"But you said -"

"Just because you _can_ kill doesn't mean you are _allowed_ to." Mr. C said patiently. Jason grumbled – perhaps he was thinking he could squish me to death with his fat butt.

What a noble way to die.

"How are we're going to learn the camping stuff?" a student cried in distress, "I am going to fail!" Like an epidemic, the other students caught the anxiety and too began to fidget. Mr. C raised a hand to usher them quiet.

"I'm going to teach you guys all I know about the wilderness," Mr. C announced to the now silent group, "and it starts today."

For the next several days, we had to take field trips to the nearby park to practice our "survival skills".

"Okay guys," Mr. C held a meeting before assigning us tasks and turning us loose, "Remember that you have to sign up by next week for the exam or notify me. Ten of you guys haven't done either of those options, so it looks like zeros for you so far!" Ten people left, that means that there could be two teams of five left. How nice.

"But sir?" a girl piped up.

"Yes?"

"I can't go." she said meekly.

"Oh, then see me when we get back to school, okay?" The girl nodded, and Mr. C turned away from her, looking troubled. I was troubled too; one team of four? How is that going to work out? I already knew my partial team, at least: me and Kirby.

"Pikachu?" I turned around and saw Link.

"What do you want?" I asked the pre-teen, wondering what he was up to.

"Um" Link hesitated, "I was just thinking, since I don't have a group, can I join yours?" I raised my eyebrows in mild surprise. I leaned against the trashcan I was standing next to casually, thinking.

"What's going on?" Kirby walked over, looking up at Link, and then at me.

"Link wants to join our group." I said simply. Kirby looked at Link for a moment.

"Sure, I don't see anything wrong about that." Kirby said, and I nodded in agreement. Link sighed and said thanks.

"No problem-o, Link." I said.

Today's schedule predicted we would conduct a scavenger hunt, which was exactly what we did.

"Now," Mr. C started, "Ms. Astatine and I have given plastic your groups plastic baggies, gloves, a compass, a pocket knife, and a list of things you need to find."

"Are you going to give us a map or something?" someone yelled.

"No, you will not need one." Mr. C said, "Mark your trails that would lead back to here."

"But aren't we going to get a map for the exam?" a guy whined.

"Shut up!" Everyone stopped and turned to face Link, "This is supposed to be practice for when you go off-trail or something like that!" I nodded, remembering him saying to me to mark the trail. Everything was fading as I recalled that day.

***

It was two months after Link purchased me, and we were walking in the forest in our backyard.

"Always mark your trail," Link says to me, "if your path is marked, then you won't get lost." I looked up at the boy.

"But aren't we already walking on a marked path?" I then looked at the trodden earth below me.

"It's true that we walk on the path Dad made, but what if I want to go this way?" Link turned to his right and started making his way through the undergrowth, snapping stems along the way.

"If I wanted to go back, I can follow the snapped stems back to the main path, see?" Link pointed behind him. I looked back and saw the route of broken stems and nodded my head.

***

"Pikachu?" I shook my head to clear my mind.

"You were probably reminiscing again; wake up and smell the pines! We have to go scavenger hunting!" Kirby slapped me across the face. I staggered backwards.

"What's with you and slapping?!" I cried, rubbing my sore cheek. I am starting to agree with Jason on the topic of "slapping".

"Well, do you want me to punch you?"

"No." I said, thinking about the time Kirby punched Jason across the room.

"Okay the, let's go!" Kirby said, running off.

"Wait!" I called after him, "We have to pick our groups!"

"We already did, slowpoke – now hurry up!" Kirby yelled back. It turned out that Link was the third person in our trio of hunters. Luckily, we all were experts at scavenger hunts.

"We _have_ to pick up raccoon poop?" I said, not believing what the list asked for in front of me. I gave it a flourish, hoping it was the light tricking me again – nope, the coon scat stuck to the paper as it soon will to my gloves.

"Well, pick it up!" Kirby called, "Link already has picked up rabbit droppings and about a quarter of the list." The puffball clipped off a leaf sample from a tree. Lucky Kirby, he doesn't have to pick up any poop, because if he did, we might as well add Kirby's vomit to the list. I looked up from the paper and watched Link jump and climb a tree, being quick and yet nimble in his step. He sat down on a sturdy branch and smiled to himself as he retrieved sycamore clippings. Smiling? Link was smiling? Link rarely smiled once he reached ten years old, and now he was having the time of his life. I turned away and checked off sycamore leaves.

The next time we were out on a field trip was when there were heavy thunderclouds overhead.

"This will provide excellent practice!" Mr. C commented. Some people thought he had gone nuts.

"Your task is to build a shelter from the rain, if it rains – I hope it will – and the group who stays the driest wins twenty dollars each." Mr. C held up a wad of sixty bucks, drawing the attention to many students. Everyone eagerly picked their groups, for whatever reason, and got started. Kirby and I knew our chances of winning would be further projected if we stuck with Link, so we joined him.

"Do you think there is going to be lightning?" Kirby asked me. I closed my eyes and tried to sense the polarization happening between the clouds and the ground.

"Negative, ghost rider." I confirmed.

"Good." Link said, and sought a clearing with trees, carrying a bag of rope and canvas. I kept checking on the weather as we laid out our materials.

"If only there was a way to bunch these branches together..." Link's voice drifted off as he looked up at the young, short, trees.

"I got it." Kirby said, taking a piece of rope. He pulled together a bunch of branches and held out the rope.

"Wouldn't that decrease the tree-cover area?" I asked, watching him sling the rope around the top of the bunch.

"Pikachu, we're not going to use _all_ of the space, just some of it." Link said, "Besides, more rain would be blocked out." We watched Kirby tie a firm knot around the bunch, not so tight that it was like a bundle of wheat, but more like a thatched roof.

"Beautiful," I said sarcastically, "now we only have three pieces of rope to tie up the canvas." Link started unfurling the canvas. I looked up at the thatched roof.

"Well, that is going to do us fat luck if the rain is going to be blowing in at a diagonal." I said, tilting my ears from side to side.

"Which reminds me," Kirby said, "which way is the wind blowing, Pikachu?" I closed my eyes and sniffed for distant, wind blown scents. I turned, eyes closed, until I smelled the pines that were half a mile away, and a closer group. I opened my eyes.

"That-a-way." I pointed in the general direction.

"Okay then, we are going to make the back of the tent facing the wind." Link said, "so the entrance will not have to be rained on." He started making the canvas slant, blocking the light head wind. Already bored from watching him, I started to count rope.

"One for lacing the door," I set a piece of rope aside, "We only have two pieces left." Link took one and handed it to Kirby so he could tie the top of the canvas to the tree.

"Okay, one more." I muttered.

"We're going to use that for latching the door." Kirby said.

"What?!" I was dumbfounded, "I already have one." I shook the last remaining length of rope.

"That's for _lacing_, not _latching_." Kirby said, "Latching keeps the door in place; lacing closes the door."

"Can't you use one piece of rope for both?"

"Both of them aren't long enough to do the job."

"Then what are we supposed to do to hold our tent down?" I asked. Kirby merely pointed to Link, who was sitting on a log.

"Yeah, what about him?" I asked, not understanding. Then I saw that Link was holding a branch and a pocket knife. He was whittling out a point at one end of the branch.

"Um Link? What is _that?_" I asked, using my pinkie finger to point at the wood. Link brushed off some wood shavings from his lap, and looked at me. He held up the piece of wood.

"A peg; you know – object to hold a tent down in the ground." Link said, putting it aside to start on a new one. I watched the shavings fall onto the ground.

"Pikachu, go get a big, heavy rock." Link said, readjusting his grip on the peg.

"Why?" I asked, not getting a clue why he needed a rock. Was the log he sat on giving him splinters?

"Just go get one." Link and Kirby said. I looked between the two of them, and turned on my heel. I started my quest in search for a boulder. Scampering along, I only found hand-held rocks. For a few minutes, I couldn't find any rock big enough until I came across another group's tent-building territory. I looked at them.

"Hey, um, can I use that big rock over there?" I asked no one in particular. The group stopped whatever they were doing and stared at me, perhaps thinking I was strange. Well, they shouldn't mind, because that rock sat there untouched.

"Why do you need it?" Zelda, a member of the group, asked me. I shrugged.

"Link wants a big, heavy rock." I said.

"Why?" Zelda raised one of her delicate eyebrows and gave me a questioning look.

"Who knows, he just does." I raised my hands in surrender. The group looked at each other with funny looks on their faces, and nodded. I walked over, and with all my might, I dragged the heavy rock across the dirt after safely securing permission.

"Hurry Pikachu, bring – what in the world?!" Kirby gasped.

"You asked for a big rock," I said, pointing to the rock and grinning, "it's as big as me!" Kirby just put his palm into his face and sighed.

"Don't be stupid, get one that you can hold in your hand." Kirby cried out.

"But that's kinda small!" I yelled back.

"It's supposed to be a hammer to nail the pegs into the ground!" Kirby said.

"Oh, how was I supposed to know? You guys told me to find -"

"JUST GET A STUPID ROCK!" Kirby shouted, causing the rest of the class to stare. Angry and frustrated, Kirby flattened himself on the ground. I glanced down at him, and my jaw just about touched my toes. It was not the flattening part (I have seen him squish himself many times) but what Kirby was.

Kirby had become a rock.

"Oh my gosh! Kirby's a rock!" I cried out in panic, not knowing what happened, "Kirby, what happened to you?!" Kirby reverted back to his normal self.

"What?" he asked, still grumpy.

"You turned into a rock!" I exclaimed.

"So, I-"

"Explain later, turn back into a rock." I quickly said, smelling the approaching rain. Kirby transformed back into a rock. If there was a perfectly good rock in front of me, why not give it a shot. Link held down a peg. I heaved the rock and brought it down onto the peg.

"OW!"

"Oops, sorry Link." I guess I also smashed Link's fingers into the ground.

"Let me do the next one." Link said, wincing as he picked up rock Kirby.

"Hey the peg went in!" I cried in delight.

"And nearly my fingers," Link muttered, "c'mon Pikachu, you hold the peg this time." Link held the rock up.

"Nuh-uh! I am not her to make jelly outta my fingers!" I retorted, and stuffed my fingers protectively in my armpits.

"Oh, Pikachu; there is no time. Trust me on this one." Link sighed. Reluctantly, I pulled out my hands, took a peg and held it in place, and held it there until the split-second before Rock Kirby came in contact with the wooden peg. I watched the peg sink into the dirt.

"Hurry, the storm is coming!" I said frantically.

"Well, hurry up and get the peg!" Link said. Why was everybody telling me what to do? I glared at Link, picked up the peg and chucked it at him.

"It's your turn to hold the peg." I said, fury evident in my voice.

"Pikachu -" I heard thunder rumble in a not-so-far-distance. Link, hearing it too, sighed and said, "Okay, but hurry now." He held down the peg, and I knocked it in with Rock Kirby, also smushing Link's fingers again. Link took the last peg and handed it to me, picked up Rock Kirby and pounded it in. As I watched the peg cut into the dirt like someone digging into a piece of pie, I felt my anger ebb away. How did I become so angry quickly and easily?

"C'mon Pikachu! Get in the tent!" Kirby was back in his pink puffball form. I waddled towards the opening. I felt some tingling on the coat of my fur. I blinked and looked up.

"It's raining! Link, get in here!" Link rushed into the tent, and I after him. I cannoned myself through the opening, and unfortunately ran into Link.

"Umph!"

"Sorry Link." I brushed myself off and went to help Kirby lace the door of the tent, weaving the rope in and out of the holes. Kirby finished the job by carefully knotting the rope. We all sat down (Link was sitting already, because the tent was too short for him to stand in), and I looked up at the roof, pondering.

"I wonder how long are we going to be in here." I asked the ceiling. The pitter-patter of the rain followed my question.

"Who knows," Kirby sighed, "we'll just have to wait."

The answer came a few minutes later when there was rapping on the canvas.

"Hurry up! We have to get on the bus so we can get to school and go home!" Ms. Astatine (by the sound of the voice) called. We unlaced the door and was hurried into raincoats and umbrellas before a single drop of rain touched us.

The whole class me back in the pavilion where we could take off our raincoats under the roof.

"Wasn't that something, class?" Mr. C exclaimed, "I think I like this assignment." Some soggy faces frowned back at him.

"As for today's winners," Mr. C continued, "I will check right now." Mr. C examined each group with an expressionless face. I watched him pause his pacing to look at me, and then he continued his march. Mr. C came to a stop in the middle of the pavilion.

"I'm back!" Ms. Astatine came back, carrying all the canvas and ropes. Mr. C looked over at the young lady.

"What took you so long?" he asked.

"Well, one of the ropes was tied around a bunch of branches and there were that pinned a canvas in the ground. I had to leave it." she reported.

"Interesting..." Mr. C said to himself. He walked a few steps and the asked Kirby, "Did your group use the wooden pegs?"

"Uh..." Kirby hesitated, unsure whether this was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Are we in trouble?" I blurted out, "We didn't know we weren't supposed to use the wood to make-"

"Pikachu, it's fine." Mr. C said reassuringly, "You're not in trouble; in fact, your group won the contest."

"Oh, really?" I asked, not believing what he had said.

"Every word of it; now, here's you twenty dollars as promised." Mr. C handed me a twenty dollar bill, and gave two more to Link and Kirby. I looked at the green paper within my hands; what did I need this for? It is not I have to pay for gas or buy groceries.

"Um, Mr. C?" I asked the man.

"Hmm?" he turned around to look down on me.

"I don't want this," I said, holding out the money, "I can't see a use for this."

"I do." He said calmly.

"You do?"

"You can buy presents for Christmas, or Hanukkah." he said. I blinked; of course, with the winter holidays approaching, how could I forget about Christmas?

"Oh, okay, thanks!" I said. I held onto the money and did not let go until Link offered to hold it for me. I gave it to him and he tucked it away safely in his pocket.

"By the way, class, tomorrow is when you have to turn in your exams or notify me." Mr. C said to everyone on the bus before signaling the driver to start rolling.

"Oh my gosh! We still need to pick our group!" I smacked my forehead. I thought; our group only consisted of me, Kirby, and Link, so we only need one more person to make a group of four. Then, I lightbulb clicked in my head.

"Hey, Link," I said to him in the seat in front of me.

"What?" He tuned back slightly to look at me with a sideways glance. I smiled at the thought of my next question.

"Do you want to ask Zelda if she can join our group?" I asked as innocently as I could. Link looked taken aback.

"She probably is with another group."

"No she isn't, and you perfectly know that!" I said, "Go ask her."

"Why?" Link retorted.

"Why not?" I countered, "Besides, we do need another person."

"Why do I need to ask Zelda?" Link said.

"Ask me what?" We turned to see Zelda looking at us from across the aisle, and Link looked away.

"Link wants to ask you if you want to join our group for the – mmph!" Link quickly covered my mouth with his hand. Zelda raised her eyebrows.

"Is there anything wrong with me joining?" Zelda asked Link in her soft voice, "I'd love to if I can."

"Well – I, uh..." Link stammered.

"Nope, I'm okay with you." I blurted through Link's loosened fingers.

"Me too." Kirby agreed. We both looked at Link for the final okay. Link shrugged.

"Sure, nothing is wrong." Link said. I heard a bit of uncertainty in his voice, but Zelda didn't. She just nodded and returned to quietly gazing out of the window. I then heard scribblings.

"Kirby, what are you doing?" I asked. Kirby quickly finished a last few bits of information in his notebook before closing it and popping it into his mouth.

"I'm taking notes." Kirby replied matter-of-factly.

"Eew!" I was concerned about something else now, "You ate your book?"

"Yeah, so what?" Kirby said defensively.

"Wouldn't your notebook get all mushy and wet?" I asked.

"That's gross." Kirby remarked. Kirby was contradicting himself again, and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, doesn't that happen when you swallow it? Wouldn't it get all mushy from digestion?"

"That would happen it _you_ swallowed it." Kirby explained, "When I swallow, food goes into an empty space."

"You mean the food just sits there?" I asked, flabbergasted. I imagined a pile of fruits and vegetables sitting in the middle of pink nothing-ness.

"No, the good floats inside of me." Kirby said happily. I thought otherwise.

"You're weird." I muttered under my breath.

***

All four of us (me, Kirby, Link, and Zelda) were walking home. The rain earlier cleared up, but puddles were still found everywhere. I splashed my way through one, spraying the others with droplets. Kirby then kicked up a wave from a deeper puddle, soaking me with the torrent. I tried to splash him again, and it did hit him, but not his pink skin. Kirby squished himself into a rock, and the water smothered him. The rock Kirby wiggled a bit and reverted back to Kirby, completely dry.

"Not fair!" I cried, "How do you turn into a rock?!"

"Who knows," Kirby walked past me, "I just do."

"No offense Kirby, but you are a strange being. What are you?" I asked.

"You already know the answer." Kirby said plainly.

"Can I have some water?" Link asked Kirby.

"There's plenty on the ground," I said, sweeping my arms to show them, "help yourself." Kirby, however, just smirked (he can't snort for he doesn't have a nose) and handed Link a water bottle.

"What are you Kirby?" I returned to the question.

"Pikachu, I told you thousands of times already that -"

"That Link likes Zelda, I know but -" I gasped and covered my mouth, realizing I had just given out top secret information. Link choked on his water and started sputtering. Oops...

"You weren't supposed to say that!" Kirby hissed, but soft enough so I can only hear it, "It was a secret!"

"Sorry, but it just came out! I didn't mean to, honestly!" I whispered back.

"Why did you say that?" Kirby asked again.

"I told you it just came out!" I insisted, "It wasn't my fault!"

"You could have at least held your tongue!" Kirby scolded quietly, walking up the driveway of the house.

"Well, sor-ree!" I cried, "But what is _that_ have to do with _you?_ Why do you care about me blurting random crud?"

"Common courtesy." Kirby said simply.

"But -"

"Ooh, Pikachu," Kirby said, eying Link as he walked towards us, "you're in for deep doo-doo now!"

***

"But I tried not to say it!" I cried.

"You should have kept your mouth shut!" Link argued. For the second time today, I had to go through this process. It was not anywhere close to fun.

"Man," I said, "you are just like Kirby at times."

"Whatever – just don't say that again!" he repeated.

"Say what?" I asked coolly.

"That I – uh, um..." Link looked away.

"You really like her, don't you?" I said softly, leaning against the wall casually. Link snapped his focus back at me.

"I do not!" But Link's cheeks flushed slightly.

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Well, what does this have to do with – _that!_" Link tried to pick up his words again, "Just don't say _that_ again, understand?"

"Why do you not want me to say that? Oh, you don't want everybody to know that you _love_ Zelda, I got it." I said, yawning. I know I am acting like a meanie-head, but I am also rather annoyed with this business. Once is okay – twice is just overkill.

"I do not!" Link said, fiercely disagreeing.

"You _want_ to let everyone know that you like Zelda? I'm surprised."

"No; I mean I don't like Zelda!" Link punctuated his statement with a well defined exclamation point.

"Oh, you're making it sound like you hate Zelda." I said, frowning. Link blinked and tilted his chin upwards slightly. He gave a huge sigh and the said calmly,

"Zelda is just my friend, okay Pikachu? Now don't say that again." Link knelt down to look me in the eye with a hard, blue stare, telling me not to disobey. And yet, there was a small pleading look that played on his expression. I closed my eyes, thinking. Even though I didn't really enjoy Link's company that much anymore, there was still a kind-hearted part that pitied him. I reopened my eyes and returned Link's glare with a serious one from my own dark eyes.

"Okay Link, I promise I won't say it again." I answered slowly. And with that said, I left the room.

To make sure anyone else did not say the secret words, I told everybody not to say "Link likes Zelda."

"You what?!" Kirby gasped. I had told him what I had accomplished within the last twenty minutes.

"I told everyone not to say the secret words." I said proudly, "Now they won't say them."

"You said that?" Kirby groaned.

"Yeah – is there anything wrong with that?"

"Yes!" Kirby hissed.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked, feeling completely clueless.

"Now everyone knows that Link likes Zelda!" Kirby yelled, "Pikachu, you idiot!"

"Well, that's not nice." I muttered.

"You don't get it, don't you?" Kirby cried, "You just told everybody that Link likes Zelda by telling them not to say that!"

"I didn't tell Zelda." I said meekly, shying away.

"Well, that's good." Kirby exhaled sharply.

"I didn't tell Yoshi either." I continued. Then both of us froze. If there was anybody who said random stuff at the most unpredictable moments better than I, it was Yoshi. Who knows what he may scream at dinner, at bedtime, or at two o'clock in the morning?

"This is not good." Kirby said.

"Hello." Mario said to us, appearing out of nowhere (as usual).

"Hi." we both answered.

"I was just-a wondering if you-a knew where-a Yoshi is; I have some-a sandwiches for him."

"Oh no," I wailed, "where's Yoshi?" Kirby and I dashed off in a desperate search for the green dinosaur. We called his name over and over.

"Oh gee, I hope he hasn't been talking to Zelda." I panted.

"Yoshi!" Kirby called.

"Do you need me?" a squeaky voice said behind us. We turned around, and there was Yoshi grinning broadly.

"Oh thank you!" I sighed with relief. Kirby, however, remained tense.

"Yoshi, what were you just doing?" Kirby asked.

"What? Am I in twubble? I own-wee needed to go to da baff-woom!" Yoshi started to cry, "I we-uh-wee had to go potty!"

"It's okay Yoshi, you're not in trouble." Kirby said, going over to give him a reassuring pat.

"I also told Zelda not to say, 'Wink wikes Zelda'." My mouth dropped open and Kirby froze. Yoshi, on the contrary, beamed at us.

"I heard Pikachu telling eh-vee-body not to say that, and I saw that she foh-got Zelda, so I told Zelda!" I gaped at him, and Kirby just closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing his hand back and forth across them. Yoshi just giggled and grinned at us.

To prevent that incident from occurring again, the KPY held a meeting in Kirby's room.

"From now on, the fact Link likes Zelda must remain a secret, not to be breathed upon anyone, until further notice." Kirby announced.

"Don't worry, Kirby" I said, "I don't breathe on people." Kirby rolled his eyes.

"Ooh, what see-kwet?" Yoshi cried in delight, looking around for it.

"Yoshi, you already know that Link likes Zelda." I said, exasperated.

"Oh."

"Since nobody is really supposed to know about this, we can only talk about it quietly." Kirby proclaimed further.

"Shh, see-kwet, see-kwet!" Yoshi whispered, putting a finger to his mouth.

"Yeah, secret." I mumbled, thinking about the whole series of events over.

"So, it's agreed?" Kirby asked.

"Yeah." I stretched and nodded. We both turned to look at Yoshi.

"Shh, see-kwet, see-kwet!"

Oh, expecting the unexpected is going to be difficult.

* * *

**I don't think I did very well on this chapter...**

**Yay or Nay? Rate and Review!  
**


	14. Some More Bus Problems

**Some More Bus Problems**

"So, you're the group of four." Our D.O. Instructor looked over the edge of his clipboard with his eyebrows raised expectantly, perhaps a little worried as well.

"Yep." I said casually, examining my claws absentmindedly. Personally, I wasn't all too concerned with our downsized group – hark, I am rather short myself. Besides, we were a really good bunch of kids; we got Link (expertise), Zelda (someone to take Link's mind off of things), Kirby (another expertise), and me (with my trusty rodent senses and instincts).

"Well," Mr. C took his pencil and scratched the side of his head with the eraser end, "I guess you guys will be on the lower end of the dream pool." I felt myself laughing inside my brain, but being a good student I said,

"Uh-huh." pretending to agree. Mr. C sighed, and raised his eyes to the ceiling and thought for a while. I waited patiently for him to say something.

"Is there anyone else that you would like to take along with you," Mr. C finally said, "since you are short one person?"

"What?" I felt my bottom drop out of me, hardly believing the words that slipped out of that man's mouth.

"If you want to," Mr. C explained more slowly, "you can take along another person since you are short one." Did I believe the luck of my pointy ears?

"Really?" I asked, daring to hope it was true.

"Really," he confirmed, "only if you want to."

"You bet I do!" I exclaimed, leaping into the air in sheer joy. For the last few days, Yoshi has been spilling tears and bawling his lungs out. Sobbing between broken sentences, he said he would miss us – but now he doesn't have to. Now I don't have to be strangled and cried upon, too. Two big thumbs-up for me! Once the dismissal bell rang, I ran to find my pink friend.

"Kirby, Kirby, Kirby!" I called, finding his face engrossed with a pile of papers. He looked up from his exam study guide.

"Huh?" he said, slightly distracted.

"Yoshi can come with us!" I said, hopping up and down with excitement. Kirby stared at me with a blank look.

"And go where?" Apparently, Kirby didn't know what I was talking about. Here is the perfect example why I have a brain.

"Kirby, wake up and take your face out of those study guides!" I exclaimed, snatching the sheets out of his hands. Kirby reached for them, but I held them farther away.

"Dude, listen!" I cried in exasperation, "Yoshi can come with us in the D.O. Fenses exam!" Kirby stopped reaching for his papers and blinked three times in surprise.

"Really?" he asked, his voice rather incredulous.

"Really, really!" I said, "Mr. C said we could." Kirby's blue eyes brightened in excitement. Now, the KPY doesn't have to be separated!

"That's great!" Kirby yelled, and danced about in his place. When Kirby is really happy, he does a small victory dance, twirling and jumping in glee. Usually people would stop and stare at Kirby, but at the moment, there was no one to stop and stare at us. I noticed that all the people were leaving.

"Okay Kirby, you can cheer all you want when we get home" I said urgently, glancing around the empty courtyard, "we're gonna miss our bus if we keep this up." Kirby looked around too.

"Oh, okay." Kirby agreed. We rushed through the halls, stopping by our locker to grab our backpacks and textbooks. Hurriedly, the two of us shuffled our books into our backpacks.

"Okay, let's go!" Kirby said, and he slammed the locker door close.

"OW! KUUUUUUUUR-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" I howled in pain; I had been reaching for my notebook when the locker had been closed painfully on my arm. Several straggling students stared at me, who was gasping and clutching the stuck arm, and Kirby who was freaking out.

"Oh hurry up!" Kirby said, tugging on the arm stuck on the locker.

"You could at least say you're sorry!" I shrieked at him, waving my free arm in distress. Oh, the pain hurts, I would say it's like your finger caught in a heavy metal door, but this is my arm we're talking about. It is a metal locker, that I know, but the last time I tried to open it with electricity, the code got messed up and Kirby couldn't open the locker. So here I am, bummed.

"Well, sor-_ree_!" Kirby replied, and started to tug on my arm again.

"You could at least plug the combination in and open the stupid locker!" I howled. Kirby shook himself, and tried to yank my arm free. It started to stretch, growing increasingly thin and tight. The students who weren't staring before sure was now. I watched my own arm being stretched like silly putty. Suddenly, my hand slipped between the slit between the door and the locker itself and sprang back to the rest of my body, looking as through nothing had happened. I tested it, wiggling some of my fingers, and counting them. One, two, three, four, five – they were all there.

"That was cool." I laughed, thinking about my stretchy arm.

"Come on!" Kirby was already at the end of the hallway. I ran to catch up to him. We reached the bus ramp, only to find the buses start to leave one by one.

"Man!" I spat, and watched the buses go.

"There's our bus!" Kirby cried, pointing to one of the yellow vehicles. He was right – I saw that unmistakable number on the bumper. It was still parked. Hope flared in my stomach.

"Let's try to catch it!" I started running on all fours. Kirby took off after me, and we just kept running our little feet out until we saw the bumper big and bright, displaying our bus number. But it was too late; the bus started pulling away. I kept running though – I am not going to give up all that running for nothing. Slowly, we fained on our bus, which had finally slowed to a stop at a stop sign. I saw my chance, but remembered that the bus driver wasn't going to pick up any late students. What a bummer; my thoughts were racing. What should we do? There was no one at home to come to school and pick me and Kirby up. With my quick pace, the bumper was coming close. Suddenly, I thought of an idea.

"Kirby, jump!" I hollered to him, and we both leaped. With my claws, I clung onto the metallic bumper easily. Kirby, who lacked claws, swung his backpack so that a strap looped over a knob, which he used to pull himself up. I grabbed Kirby by the hand and we balanced ourselves on the bumper, which was a _very_ uncomfortable task. We were both in danger of wobbling and falling onto the asphalt road.

"Kirby!" I called.

"You don't have to yell, smart one." he said calmly. I hissed at him, and then continued.

"Let's get up on the roof." I said, and Kirby's eyes flattened out.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" he said bluntly. I craned my neck to stare up. How would we get up there?

"Let's scale the bus." I said. And so followed a series of humiliating events, where I clung desperately to the back of a bus, with Kirby holding onto my tail. My face was planted against the glass of the emergency back door. Through it, I saw my fellow bus riders, and some staring wide-eyed back at me. I probably looked like some dead animal, but waggled my head around to show them I wasn't a dead cat (my hands were need to grip onto the glass).

"I think they saw us." I said to Kirby. And indeed they did – the bus driver pulled over and we clambered down from our exhausting grip and entered the bus.

I'm starting to think that I have a problem with buses.

* * *

**I'm SOO sorry with the shortness! I wanted a chapter that demonstrated another of Pikachu's traits (how selfish is that?)**

**I'm also terribly sorry for the long wait - I had a load of school stuff to do, and I also was playing Brawl! ^^  
**


	15. Into the Wild

**Into the Wild**

"Which tooh-bush should I bwing?" Yoshi asked us, holding up an identical pair of toothbrushes. We were currently packing up for our exam/race through the woods tomorrow. I shoved a pillow into a knapsack.

"It doesn't matter Yoshi – they're both the same." I said nonchalantly, now folding a scarf and settled it next to my bag. Yoshi looked worriedly at the two green toothbrushes in each of his hands.

"Ah we coming back foh Kisst-mas?" Yoshi asked.

"Of course we're coming back for Christmas – how can we miss that?" I said. Even through it was the Winter Holidays, the exam wasn't going to be very long. Mr. C had said that it wasn't nearly as hard as the real trail that orienteering competitors take. Besides, if it really were that long, I would immediately throw my hands up in surrender and take the other exam. Christmas at the Castle in the Air isn't something you'd want to miss.

"We fwy on pwane?" Yoshi asked. Kirby nodded in response, busy looking over his belongings. The trail we're taking wasn't in Illinois; it was in Canada, along the Rockies and near Alaska. Strangely enough, we didn't have to buy airplane tickets; an organization paid for them, as well as basic equipment and heavy gear, snow clothing for people who asked.

"Do we bwing money foh pwane?" Yoshi asked, drumming his feet on the ground, still holding his toothbrushes.

"No," Kirby replied, "somebody already paid for them."

"Isn't eet eekss-pensive?" Yoshi asked, drawing out his syllables in a curious tone.

"Yeah." Kirby thought, "Perhaps Mr. Colech has a good friend in that organization."

"Yepsters!" I agreed. You would have to be a very generous person to hand out hundreds of dollars worth of tickets to a mere teacher. A simple stranger would never do that. My ears pricked up to the sound of the door opening behind me.

"Hey guys," Link was peeking thought the doorway when I turned around to see who it was, "You finished packing yet?"

"Nearly," I replied, shuffling a jacket into the knapsack.

"I'm done." Kirby stretched far back, and accidentally rolled over onto his back. I used a hand and pushed him upright.

"Which tooh-bush should I bwing?!" Yoshi was over at the door in a blink, holding the toothbrushes in Link's bewildered face.

"Uh," Link stepped back a bit to give himself room, "They look the same to me."

"Which one?" Yoshi pressed on. To save his face from Yoshi's spit, Link said,

"Uh, I guess the right one." glancing at Yoshi's right hand.

"Of cohss you pick wight one; now which one?" Yoshi held out the toothbrushes. Link looked further baffled by Yoshi's behavior.

"He thinks that you said to pick the right toothbrush, as in the right one to use." Kirby explained, the only one who apparently understood. Link nodded and said,

"I pick this one." Link pointed to a random toothbrush.

"Thang-koo!" Yoshi squealed in delight, his eyes watering in over-expressed joy, and giggled. Well, I wasn't sure what to call the sound at first. It is sort of like a giggle, but Yoshi's mouth was closed. It was kind of like humming a gill. Well, Yoshi giggled/hummed an put his selected toothbrush away. Kirby was shaking his head in disgust.

"This is why I don't have teeth." he muttered. I rolled my eyes in exasperation – Kirby is always holding something against the skeletal system. He keeps saying "that's why I don't have blah-blah" and gets on my nerves. But I now I leave it be, knowing Kirby is just weird. The pink puffball finally stopped grumbling, and jumped onto his bed.

"Well, time for bed," Kirby yawned, "we gotta wake up early for the plane ride."

"Tomorrow is gonna be a big day." I agreed, hopping into my basket and sinking in my pillows. Kirby carefully tucked his turquoise and white sleeping around his head. He had always worn it when he goes to bed, claiming that he could not sleep without it on. Without it, he said, he would never be able to go into proper sleep, no matter how tired he got. Kirby threw his blanket over his head and sighed. Yoshi was already knocked out cold on the floor.

"Good night, Kirby," I called out.

"Nighty-night." he said drearily, sleep heavily approaching.

"Good night, Link,"

"'Night, Pikachu."

"Good night, Yoshi." A loud snore answered. I just shrugged with indifference and closed my eyes.

"Good night, Pikachu." I whispered to myself, and then slowly fell asleep.

***

It was super dark when we woke up at three o' clock in the morning the next day. We had to wake up so early due to the fact we lived far from the airport. I didn't mind; I was wide awake from sheer excitement, and so was everyone else. Well, we can exclude Yoshi. After attempting to wake him up fifty times, we hauled his sleeping body to the car and drove off. All the way there, I had to use a hand to tip his drooling mouth away from me. Once in the airpoirt, we waited for a long while (all of us, including Captain Falcon, had forgot to bring a time-telling device, and the big clock on the wall was long dead.) By the time it was our turn for the baggage check, Kirby nudged Yoshi, prodding him awake. People were starting to give us funny faces.

"Wha – wha happening? Am I dweaming?" Yoshi whimpered, glancing around sleepily.

"You gotta take your shoes." Kirby pointed at Yoshi's feet.

"Oh, okay!" Yoshi agreed happily. He bent down and slipped off his shoes, and stood back up to put them in the bin. I looked down on Yoshi's feet. I had wondered what Yoshi's feet looked like without shoes, for I have never seen them without those orange shoes.

"What the - ?!" I cried out in shock. Yoshi's feet, passing across the metal detector, were sporting another pair of shoes, the same kind as the pair I saw in the bin, passing under the scanner.

"Well, would you look at that." Kirby mumbled. We recollected our stuff, Link and Zelda shoving their shoes on. Yoshi took his pair and slipped them on over the ones he already had. He sat up, grinned, and giggled/hummed happily. Kirby and I looked at each other, and just shrugged. Things like this are occurring frequently in our lives, but it still surprises us.

Our plane was departing at gateway A13, so we sat there and waited for our time to board.

"Oh my gosh, we're going, we're going to Canada!" I shrieked, dancing on the backs of the black cushioned seats, "Oh. Canada!"

"Pikachu, don't do that!" Kirby hissed.

"Kill-joy." I muttered, plopping down in my seat, "Aren't you excited?"

"Uh, yeah," Kirby replied with a slight attitude, "but I'm not going to dance on the seats and make a fool of myself in front of our classmates." I quickly looked around in surprise.

"Our classmates are here?" I asked, standing in my seat for a better view.

"No kidding – we're all taking the same test, smart one." Sure enough, there was the bus bully, Jeff, and several others. Then, my eye was caught by the presence of our teacher, Mr. C.

"Whoa, what's he doing here?" I asked, "I though Mr. C was already in Canada!"

"Nope." Kirby said. I was watching a plane take off the airstrip when Mr. C stopped by us during his pacing.

"Did you find a fifth person?" Mr. C asked me.

"Sure did, Mr. C." I replied happily, "he's over there." I pointed to Yoshi. Mr. C. looked over and raised one of his eyebrows.

"He's a great guy," I said, "he can sniff out everything with his extra keen nose and can fight with his superior tiger-ly instincts!" Just then, Yoshi fell out of his seat and onto the floor asleep, murmuring with a puddle of drool leaking out of his mouth. We both looked at each other. Nice timing, Yoshi.

"It's okay, tigers drool a lot too." I laughed, a little nervously. Mr. C just looked back at Yoshi one last time, and left. I watched him leave, then I turned around to see Link and Zelda, sitting together, watching a plane fly off. Eww... cooties.

"Aw, isn't that so sweet." I sighed, my sarcasm dripping like honey. Kirby pinched his expression.

"Don't make me barf." He exhaled sharply.

"Hoo-way foh da new cou-pull!" Yoshi cried to everyone in the gateway area, huffing Link and Zelda; both of them looked equally bewildered and equally flushed from embarrassment.

"Yoshi!" Kirby hissed, "Shh!"

"Oh," Yoshi dropped the two, scrunched himself up, and placed his index finger over his mouth, "Shh! See-kwet, see-kwet!" I smushed my hand into my face. Good grief...

_"A13 passengers can begin boarding now."_ A muffled intercom speaker broadcasted.

"A dirty messenger can pickin' what?" Kirby gasped, not hearing the announcement clearly. But I heard it – with my super-duper rat senses.

"C'mon Kirby, Yoshi – it's time to get on that plane!"

"Yay!" Yoshi ran to the boarding dock, dragging me and Kirby behind him.

Yoshi got to sit next to the window, and then Kirby next to him, and then me. The five of us waved to Captain Falcon in the gateway as the plane was driven onto the airstrip. We buckled our seat belts, untangling Yoshi from his. By the time Yoshi was finally in proper buckle position, the intercom procedures were already through, and the plane was running along the airstrip. My seat was rumbling, and I felt heavy feeling of being dragged down by gravity, but Illinois was growing smaller and smaller beneath us.

"Bye, Illinois." I said, waving to the rapidly shrinking formations below us. Mr. C came by in the aisle a few moments later.

"Would you like some gum? It will help alleviate the pressure in your ears." Mr C offered a piece.

"No thank you; I don't have eardrums," Kirby declined, raising his hands, "No teeth, either." Yoshi was too engrossed with the squished bug on the window to care for gum. Even though I got used to the pressure that builds in you ears at high altitudes from the Castle in the Air, I took a piece. Being a rodent, I must have something to nibble for my own mouth comforts. Mr. C walked further down the aisle, offering gum to his students. Unwrapping the piece of Juicy Fruit he gave me, its sweet, luscious scent making my mouth water, I pondered a mystery.

"Kirby?" I asked him.

"Yeah?"

"How can you hear thing when you don't have eardrums?" I said.

"That's a good question," Kirby said, pondering the trivia himself, "what do you think?"

"Please don't tell me -"

"I don't know." Kirby finished simply, investigating the trays that were attached to the seats in front of us. I decided to drop the subject.

"So," he said, tracing his tray, "when do you think they'll serve us snacks?"

"Kirby, you seriously can't be hungry now." I said to him.

"I'm serious; I am _always_ hungry, remember?" Kirby pointed out. I remember him telling me that before when I challenged him to a pie eating contest. At the time, while I lay stuffed with pie and watching Kirby inhaling all of his, I thought he was only joking. I mean, who can seriously be hungry forever?

"You'll never get full? Ever?" I asked, slightly horrified.

"Never."

"So, you'll never feel the satisfaction of a full stomach?" I gasped.

"Never."

"So you can eat all you want and never have a limit to it?"

"Yes – isn't it great?" Kirby remarked enthusiastically. I raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever." I said, dropping the subject. We sat there in silence, only hearing the murmuring of the fellow passengers and the turbo jets on the wings when all of a sudden, Yoshi started crying.

"Buggy foo away!" he sobbed, pointing to the empty spot where the squished bug used to be. All that remained was a crumbly black smudge.

"It's okay – he was only dead." Kirby said hastily, dismissing the topic.

"What's so interesting about a bug's butt being squished through his head?" I piped up.

"Eew!" Kirby cried, and reached for the airsick bag.

***

The ground of the Canadian wilderness felt foreign to my feet, so new and rumbling with adventure – but it was freezing my toes off. We were assembling at the starting grounds for our race; surprisingly, the ones who will be taking off from the starting line wasn't just our class – boy scouts consisting of older kids were gathered 'round, too. Link readjusted the bow slung on his back to a more comfortable position, his face firm.

"You nervous?" I asked him. He looked down on me, the sun peaking over his green hat. It reminded me how much taller he has grown over the years.

"Nope." He had a trace of a smile on his lips.

"Why not?" I asked, "I'm afraid that my feet might fall off from the cold." Link only laughed in response.

"This is not a classroom, and that's just fine with me." Link looked back at the chilled forest with a longing gaze, "Won't this be fun?"

"Whatever." I replied. Link just ruffled the fur on the top of my head before walking away.

This exam was being graded in several ways. Since the original competition is a race, the time we reach the end will determine one part of our score – the faster we get to the end, the better. Next will be the condition of our health at the end of the race; we had a physical check-up the day before, and the results were turned in to Mr. C. If we had lost an unhealthy amount of weight, we had points docked off. Mr. C. said we had no excuse, because he gave lessons upon lessons about the edibles of the forest, from roots, to berries, to the meat of the hunt itself.

Here is the starting line, and everybody was lined on top of it.

"You ready for this, Kirby?" I said, crouching my body into a sprinting position.

"You bet I am." He said, preparing himself to run.

"You ready, Yoshi?" No answer.

"Yoshi?"

"I'm WEDDY!" He squealed, hopping up and down.

"Okay – let's do this!" I tensed my muscles, ready to spring at any moment. The very moment my ears picked up the first trace of a clear, blown whistle, sharp in the cold air, I lurched forward, the thrill running along with my quickly paced steps. We darted into the darkness of the woods, each team taking a specific path assigned to them. Under the safety of the pines, we continued until we were out of view from the starting area. Everybody on my team slowed down to a forceful walk.

"I hungee." Yoshi said, trotting alongside me. I huffed.

"Yoshi, I just gave you a snack a few minutes ago." I said, slightly annoyed.

"But I shteel hungee!" Yoshi whined.

"Then go find some grass to eat." I said, waving my hand dismissively.

"Pikachu," Kirby said to me, "Do you think that grass grows in the forest at this time of year?" I looked around at the bare, cold ground.

"Oh," I said, "my bad." Yoshi all of a sudden perks up his head and sniffs twice. He turned his head and gives another two sniffs; Yoshi closed his eyes, bent down so his snout brushed the dirt and started sniffing non-stop, walking hunched to the floor.

"Whad'ya smell, Yoshi?" I asked him. Yoshi paid mind; instead, he kept his nose to the ground until he came upon a bush full of -

"BEH-WEES!" Yoshi squealed, seeing the plump berries hanging off the branches of the winter shrub. Yoshi's hands immediately darted out and began cramming the fruit in his mouth.

"Be careful! That might be poisonous!" Zelda warned in her soft voice – or should I say Sheik? Normally, I would have been surprised with the sight of a delicate, brunette lady decked in neat attire all of a sudden replaced with a blond, masculine rogue, face wrapped by cloth, hair carelessly splayed over her red eyes; but she had surprised me before with this alternate form.

"Say whatever you want," I said, "but that's not going to stop Yoshi anytime soon!" Yoshi looked up from his berry-scarfing, glanced around, and continued his feasting. I whistled, thinking about the many pounds of berries he had eaten already.

"Man, his berry-stuffing can put Kirby to shame!" I commented, scratching my chin. Kirby replied with a sharp "Hmmph!"

The canopy of pine needles overhead, blocked most of the sunlight, making it dark at the forest floor. As we walked on in silence, the winter wind to tickle the loose garments of our clothing, managing to squeeze through the thick barrier of coniferous trees. Through the small, scattered openings in the treetops, sun illuminated the path with dappled spots of light. It was a gentle moment, then, and I felt at peace. I never noticed it before, my mind being too quick to slow down and see, but being in a sheltered forest brought a calming tranquility. I guess this was why Link loved being outdoors so much.

"C'mon everybody!" I said joyfully, feeling a rush of excitement rising from my epiphany. I skipped down the roughly worn path, and then felt a sudden tug on my foot. I tripped and fell with my face flat onto the decaying pine needles.

"Arrgh." I muttered, looking back over my shoulder, "stupid root." The tree root that tripped me over sat there indifferently.

"Hurry, Pikachu!" Kirby called to me, "We're going to leave if you don't get up fast enough." I slowly rose to my feet, brushing off the dirt that clung to my yellow fur as I went.

"Wait!" Yoshi cried.

"What?" asked Link, who turned around to look back at the green dinosaur.

"I need to tie my shoe!" Yoshi squealed, lifting up his foot.

"Yoshi, you don't have shoe laces." Kirby said, pointing to his lace-less boots.

"They invisible!" Yoshi pouted, folding his arms and looking away with his nose in the air. Kirby and I looked at each other, and shrugged.

"Fine – go tie your shoe laces." I said.

"What shoe waces?" Yoshi asked, with a innocent tone. I glanced over to Link, who raised an eyebrow. I just shrugged, giving him a hesitant smile. He sighed, and closed his eyes.

"Moving on," Link said.

***

The sun was shining bright overhead by the time we stopped at a stone-laden pool to have a bite to eat. As for our progress on the road, I had no idea; no other groups were in sight and I did not bother to look at the map that was inside my knapsack. While I was setting it aside, I realized something that occurred to me as very strange.

"Kirby?" he looked over, hearing me call for his attention, "Why is it warm?"

"Pikachu," Kirby said, tersely, "it's not warm – it's thirty three degrees Fahrenheit out here."

"No, I mean relatively," I said, trying to find the words to explain myself, "as in accordance to the high latitudes and – well, uh – the time of year."

"You mean that it shouldn't be this warm for Canada in winter time." Kirby simply stated.

"Well, uh, yeah." I said, rather overwhelmed. Why can't I think of something as simple as that?

"Were you thinking you had to use large words to talk to me?" Kirby asked.

"No!" I said fiercely.

"Jeesh! You don't have to speak so harshly." Kirby frowned.

"I wasn't speaking harshly," I retorted, "I was just – um – speaking a little forcefully." Kirby only rolled his eyes, doubting my claim. I thought about the circumstance before I opened my mouth again.

"So why is it cold, anyways?" I asked.

"You mean warm." Kirby corrected me.

"Same difference," I said, not really caring, "why is it unusually warm?" Kirby pondered the predicament; after a few seconds, Kirby said,

"It's the ocean."

"The what?" I said, perplexed.

"The ocean, dumbo." Kirby sighed, apparently exasperated, "We are close to the Pacific coast, and the sea breezes from there brings warmth from the ocean to land."

"I still don't get it," I said, "but it works for me!" I remarked happily, feeling pleased with the fact my feet weren't going to freeze anytime soon.

"We've also generated our own heat." Kirby said to himself, thoughtfully, "yes – from all the walking."

"Uh, Kirby?" I asked, leaning n a sun-baked rock, "You can shut up now."

"Well! That wasn't nice," Kirby huffed, "especially when you asked for an explanation for this peculiar weather." I blinked.

"You were talking to me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow out of confusion.

"Yes, smart one." Kirby said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I thought you were talking to yourself." Kirby only exhaled sharply to my reply.

Link declared that the group should have lunch, and soon I was settled down with a cheese sandwich. Kirby popped his first sandwich (which was cheese, by the way into his mouth without chewing, and swallowed a second one after that. Yoshi nibbled on a berry tart, giggling/humming to himself happily. I was brushing off the crumbs into the clear mountain water when, all of a sudden, I got an idea.

"Hey," I said, excited by the thought, "someone should jump in the water!"

"Why would we do that?" Kirby asked, inhaling another sandwich.

"Hey! That's my sand-weech!"

"Oops, sorry Yoshi." Kirby apologized.

"Kirby, you jump in the water." I said teasingly, nudging him towards the edge of the rock he was sitting on.

"Heck no!" he said, "Do you even have any idea how cold it is?"

"I want my sand-weech BACK!" Yoshi screamed, and started shaking Kirby. Kirby got pushed into me, and I tipped over the edge and SPLASH.

"HOLY CRUD IT'S COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!!!!!" Everybody stopped short of whatever they were doing. I sat in the pool, neck-deep in bone-chilling water.

"Pikachu?" Link was staring at me, an eyebrow slightly raised, "What exactly are you doing?" I quit sputtering and splashing, and released a spout of water from my mouth.

"I was taking a – um – shower, I guess." I finally said, sitting on the round pebbles that lay at the bottom of the pool.

"Aren't showers supposed to have running water above your head?" Kirby pointed out.

"Fine, smarty pants – a bath!" I snapped, slowly clambering up the shore. I huffed and started shaking the water off my fur in a dog-like fashion. I sighed, my fur now dry. POOF!

Great. Yoshi giggled and pointed to my fur, which was now standing on end, making me look like a fluffy, yellow, fuzzball. Impatiently, I started to smooth down my fur flat against my body. My teeth clacked against each other, my body shivering.

"Oh gosh, it's cold." I chattered.

"I thought you said it was warm." Kirby said. I snorted and flattened the fur on the top of my head.

About an hour after my "bath", the quintet was on the road again.

"This is _so_ boring." I said, breaking the long silence. The only sounds before my outburst was heavy breathing, crunching of boots, environmental noises, and Yoshi's giggling/humming.

"It's not." Link shifted his pack slightly, making it more comfortable to carry.

"But it's like we're dead!" I complained.

"Whooz dead?" Yoshi squeaked through a mouthful of berries. Some purple juice squirted from his mouth and landed on my cheek. I wiped it off with a finger in disgust.

"The berries you're eating are." I said, wiping my finger on Link's boot. Link looked down and frowned, but never say the small purple stain. If he did, he didn't show any sign of it. Yoshi swallowed his mouthful of berries.

"Da beh-wees ah not dead, Pee-kah-choo," he said, waggling a finger, "day ah bee-ing diges-ed." Yoshi patted his stomach in content, eyes closed. I rolled my eyes, and Kirby only laughed.

***

That evening, Link and Zelda decided it was time to make our first camp. Link was building the tent we were destined to sleep in on one side, Zelda on the opposite side, and Kirby to the left of Link. I, on the other hand, was busy trying to tear it down.

"Pikachu!" I looked up to see Link glaring down on me, "What are you doing?"

"I am un-building the tent." I snapped, pulling out a long rope. The tent collapsed and Kirby jumped back in surprise.

"Where are we supposed to sleep, then?" Link pointed at the tent lying flat on the ground. I looked around.

"In that tree." I said simply, pointing to a bare, gnarled, gigantic wooden plant.

"How on earth -"

"Look," I said through gritted teeth, "I'm not going to sleep on the ground where some bear is gonna make a snack outta me!" Link knew this was true, of course. I am a bite-sized rodent, but whether I am tasty or not is undetermined. We decided we will sleep in the tree, but after long arguments determining how we will get up there ensured we will not be turning in for the night any time soon.

"Maybe we can build a platform." Kirby suggested, but Link shook his head.

"That will take too long." he said.

"How else are we supposed to sleep in a tree, smart one?" Kirby retorted.

"I told you we can sleep on the ground!" Link cried in exasperation.

"HEY GUYZ!" We all looked up to see Yoshi waving from the top of the tree. I felt my eyeballs pop out from my surprised face; it was definitely not from shock that Yoshi was in the tree – Yoshi has been found in higher places than a tree. No; it was what Yoshi was standing on.

The platform Yoshi was standing on. Link just seemed to be lost at words as I was.

"How – how in the world?" he stuttered. Zelda was gazing up at the platform with mild interest. But I bet that in her heart, she was screaming "Holy guacamole!"

"Oh my." Kirby commented, and then he puffed and floated up to Yoshi. He exhaled, the air inside of him huffed out, and landed neatly on the wooden craft. Walking around on it, he examined every inch for sufficient stability and support, hopping every now and then. Link went to see the platform for himself; he hoisted himself up onto a low-hanging branch and made his way to where Yoshi was. Link glanced around at it, and muttered something.

"Is it good enough?" Zelda called out. Link turned around and looked at the two of us on the ground.

"Yeah, I guess." We all tested its strength, with the final test was for us all to dance around on top of it. Through the heavy stomps of feet and my cartwheels, I was afraid that the wood would splinter and we would all fall – but it prevailed. You can leave it to Yoshi to settle matters – or make it worse. Yoshi mimicked my cartwheel and planted his butt on top of me.

"Huh? Where Pee-ka-choo?"

***

I was rubbing my sore head, sitting close to the campfire. It was now dark, the surroundings eerie and threatening. I expected to see glowing pairs of eyes peering at me in the shadows, but there was none. Dinner was settled comfortably in my stomach, and now I was thinking, while the others finished theirs. The air temperature was dropping rapidly, becoming bitterly cold. I scooted myself closer to the fire, and looked into it. This fire reminded me of someone, but that was so long ago, I can't remember who the person was. All I saw was a pair of two, sad eyes, the amber blazing in them. Ah, screw it. I stretched, realizing how tired I was – it was about time we go to bed.

"Ya know, peoples," I announced, "I wanna go to sleep – 'night."

"'Night, Pikachu." Kirby waved as I scrambled up the tree.

"Hope you eat bed bugs tonight!" Yoshi squealed, waving frantically. I looked back at him, my face scrunched in horror and disgust. I shook my head, trying not to think about green, mushy guts spewing out of some beetle, and entered the tent. It was über freezing inside, and my sleeping bag didn't help much, either. I curled into a tight ball, trying to keep my warmth. Even when you're decked out with fur, it's still freezing. Man, I feel bad for Kirby. I drifted into a light sleep.

I awoke to the sound of people entering the tent – it was the rest of the gang, finally ready to sleep. Yoshi dove headfirst into his sleeping bag, and shuffled around inside it until his head poked out the opening. Kirby sealed himself within his, taking his sleeping cap. I couldn't see what Link and Zelda were doing – it was too dark.

"Hey guys," I yawned. Yoshi murmured in his sleep.

"Yo." Kirby answered, "I'm going to sleep – 'night y'all."

"Good night," Zelda's voice whispered.

"'Night," Link said.

"Night-y night." Yoshi sighed in his sleep. It's kinda scary when he talks in his sleep, but I've gotten used to that.

"Good night." I said, and then we all drifted off in silence – well, except for me. I had something troubling on my mind.

"Link?" I called out to him in the dark.

"Hmm?" He was still awake, but barely.

"Can bears climb trees?"

"Good night, Pikachu." he groaned.

"Oh, okay."

* * *

**And that was the first day of the dawn of the KPY's extensive experience of adventures.**

**Okay, I have a favor to ask to all readers - can anybody give me any one-word suggestions to replace the word giggle/hum? I can't think of anything. The word I like the most will be used throughout the rest of this story. Thanks!  
**

**What's the significance of Pi Day to the KPY? My profile has the answer!**

**Yay or Nay? Rate and Review! Thanks for being patient with me!  
**


	16. A Picnic with Sasquatch

**A Picnic with Sasquatch**

I awoken to find that I was paralyzed – paralyzed by ice. Wiggling, I tried to break free of the freezing bond. Sadly and unfortunately for me, all attempts were in vain, as I lay flat against my back, panting hard from the effort. What the heck just happened? While straining to lift my head as far up as it could go to see the other tent mates, I saw all the other except Yoshi encrusted with streams of ice, Kirby and Link struggling to sit up as I did. Apparently, Yoshi had a very restless dream, and enough slobber to fit a koi pond; but the only koi that was in that pond was the rest of the quintet, frozen to death. Well, I'm not dead, but the ice wasn't helping me keep warm either. Zelda looked she was dead, or at least asleep.

"Rah!" I grunted in effort, and finally received favorable results. Cracks ran through the ice, crunching and crackling sounds following every split. With a final effort, I jumped to my feet, shattering the frozen spit to dust and shards.

"Vicious!" Kirby exclaimed with a whistle. I shook the remaining ice from my yellow fur.

"Well, Kirby," I replied, "at least I can _move._" Kirby huffed in displeasure and blew a raspberry. I blew one, long raspberry back, taking breaths in between till my head was spinning from lack of oxygen.

"Wha? What going on?" Yoshi bolted upright, frantically looking around at all of us, swinging his head from side to side. He drummed his feet on the floor of the tent, making hollow, wooden, sounds from the platform below us. The volume and intensity of the drumming increased, shaking the sleep out of everybody, as he demanded to know what was going on. What could we say, though? We were all being shaken, all the remaining ice inside and out of the tent breaking off of surfaces and disintegrating into fine, snowy powder.

"GooOoOoOd MoOoOoOoRnIiIing, YooOoOoshiIiI!" My teeth were rattling against each other, making speech very difficult to come by. But Yoshi somehow heard it, and he stopped to give me a big "GEWD MOE-NING, PEE-KAH-CHOO!" Everybody else, including Zelda, was sitting stunned on the floor, eyes flung wide open.

Giggling/humming, he gave us a large grin. Link rolled his eyes, and started to put on socks, painstakingly wiggling each one over his feet. The very first establishment of the morning routine was taking place. I decided, after long and careful thought (for this set the stable basis of routine throughout the rest of the exam), that I will start my days by rolling up my sleeping bag. And that I did, folding the sleeping aid in half, and rolled it up, buckling the straps that held it together in a roll when finished. Kirby followed my choice in routine, packing his sleeping bag. I feel like a role model – it makes me very happy and self confident. Zelda also rolled her sleeping bag, like me, curling hers into a neat, tight bundle. What Yoshi decided to do in the morning was to brush his teeth, and see if there was snow on the ground. Dashing out of a poorly zipped door with his prized toothbrush in hand, he fell face flat onto the ground, covered by a thin layer of white snow. Slowly, Yoshi lifted his snout from the frosted ground, blinking his eyes to adjust to this new scenery. Suddenly, he squeals in delight when he realizes what he just landed in.

"Pee-kah-choo, Kuh-bee – it's shnowing!" He cried out to us as we poked our heads through the unzipped opening. I can't believe he just realized that, but still, it was pretty amazing. Hark, I 've been in snow millions of times, but each snowfall is still magical to me, even if Yoshi plows it all as he makes his way to brush his teeth. Laughing with delight, I jumped out of the tent to join the dinosaur.

"Aren't you at least going to put a jacket on, Pikachu?" Link called to me from inside. Kirby hopped out as well.

"Tsuh, who cares?" I said, waving my hand dismissively. With my fur coat, I think I'll be just fine.

"You're going to freeze." I heard Zelda's gentle caution float out from the tent, too.

"Then so be it – I'm going to play in the snow before it is all shoveled up by Yoshi," I yelled back. Yoshi was taking an awfully lengthy detour to brush his teeth, plowing down the fresh snow in front of him.

"YIPEE-KI-YAY!!!!" I hollered, and I jumped directly from the platform, swinging my arms wildly through the air before crashing painfully onto my stomach on the cold ground with a loud "oof!". Groaning, I lifted my self up with my arms.

"Look out below!" A second later, Kirby landed neatly next to me. I gave him one of my death glares.

"Show off," I muttered. Kirby stuck out his little tongue and ran off, laughing and chasing after Yoshi. Eager to join the fray, I took off after the two, kicking up flurries of snow around my feet.

"Hey!" We all stopped throwing fistfuls of snow at each other to look at Link's head poking through the flap in the tent, "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I WANT WAFFLES!" I yelled back to him. I heard him laugh, his voice echoing in the cold air.

"Too bad we don't have any!" He replied, and my jaw dropped.

"Awww!"

"Sorry, Pikachu!"

***

I crept along the underbrush very quietly and slowly, advancing on my prey. I passed around a bush, and crouched low, calculating the moment of my killing pounce. The target was within range.

"RAH!" I leaped forward and dug my claws onto the green cap of the creature.

"What the- ?!" Link's arm lashed out and grabbed the scruff of my neck. I thrashed furiously, desperate to escape.

"For the last time, Pikachu," he said, exasperated, as I dangled from his uncomfortable grasp on my scruff, "just cut it out!" I pouted – Link was being as boring as ever.

"What ever happened to that seven year old that took me home?" I asked him, and Link dropped me onto the ground and walked on. I frowned, quickly got to my feet, and ran after him.

"Nothing ever happened, Pikachu," he said, as I scurried by his side, "it's just I don't want to deal with it right now."

"Yeah right, princess," I huffed in disdain, "tell me why did you ditch me?" Link stopped for a moment and looked down on me.

"Do you really want to know why?" he asked. My ears pricked up from curiosity and I nodded vigorously.

"Then shut up and listen," he said.

"Excuse-ay-mua?"

"Pikachu, just..."

"All right, all right," I said, raising m hands in surrender, "I'll zip my lips." I motioned a zipping action with one hand across my mouth, pretended to lock it with a key, and tossed the imaginary key over my head. Then I placed my hands behind my back, and rocked back and forth on my heels, waiting for Link to continue. Link rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Look," he said, "I wasn't trying to be mean that day, nor I wasn't tired of taking care of you, but you could take care of yourself. You don't need someone around to feed you, to give you a walk, or wash you – you do those things fine on your own."

"Not only that," he continued, "you are more like every other human on this planet, so why can't you be treated as equal as one? The only master you should have is you." In wide-eyed disbelief, I pointed to myself. Link nodded, and my mind began to grow numb. All this time I had thought that Link had kicked me out of his room is because he didn't like me anymore. Now here I am, with Link telling me he did care, despite all of the times he grew impatient with me.

"That's why I disowned you," he finished, "happy now?" I turned away from the blond, tears welling up in my eyes. I rubbed my running nose and sniffled.

"Pikachu?" I heard Link say cautiously, "Are you... crying?" I whipped back around to face him.

"No, I just got a little something in my – OF COURSE I'M CRYING!" I cried out, with tears streaming down my cheeks, "I can get _very_ emotional, you know." I wiped a string of tears from my eye with a finger.

"Quick, think of something before all this water is going to freeze on me." I said, feeling my tears becoming frigid in the cold air. Link raised his eyebrows.

"Just say anything!"

"Okay, okay," he said, thinking, "um...." He tapped his chin with his bow. Suddenly, he brightened, looking at his bow as if he discovered a new species of elephant.

"Well," he said, "bows that have a tip that curves back at the top and bottom is called a recurve bow. A tall bow, usually as tall as the user, that has no curves is called a Longbow." I snorted in amusement, rubbing my eyes.

"That's very original." I mumbled. Link ignored me and continued.

"A not so tall bow with no recurve is called a shortbow."

"Another genious' statement."

"Metal arrow tips that are razor sharp and kinda look like razors are called broadheads," Link reached back into his quiver of arrows, pulled one out, using a finger to distinguish the edge, "while just a carved point, or a metal sharp tip, is called a field tip, see?" I nodded, my eyes drying. Link smiled, and held up his bow, notching his arrow into place.

"You aim for the heart in your target, not the head like some people think." he said, aiming for an invisible deer. I, on the other hand, did not understand his way of thinking.

"Why don't you aim for the head? Would there be boogies if the arrow accidentally goes up the nose?" I cocked my head to the side. Link laughed and shrugged.

"I seriously don't know, Pikachu," he chuckled, "but that's at least something." My eyes, finally dry, looked into Link's Caribbean sea-blue ones. Link was a good guy - it was nice that finally someone besides Kirby and Yoshi did not treat me like a pet rat. I smiled to myself, pleased with this new piece of information.

"Can I ride on your head?" I asked, and Link, who was putting away his arrow, looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Why?" he asked.

"I am tired," I simply replied.

"Well," Link rolled his eyes, "_you_ can take care of _yourself_."

"Aww, c'mon," I whined, "please?" The pre-teen only sighed, and his lips curled into a small smile.

"Okay," he said, giving in, "but just this once." I grinned, and scrambled up Link's arm, onto his shoulder, and leaped onto the top of his head.

"You are _so_ tall," I commented, patting it with a small hand, "Kirby looks like punier from up here."

"That's because Kirby _is_ puny." Link chuckled, and Kirby whipped around, his face pinched into a frown.

"I'm not short," he claimed defensively, "I'm actually tall – you're just overly tall."

"You wish," Link shot back, and Kirby blew a raspberry. I was stretched out, laying casually across Link's head with an arm propping up my own, when I caught Zelda's eye. Something twinkled in those crimson pools, a small, little, laugh. I looked at Link and Kirby arguing back and forth, while Yoshi babbled a random note about sushi. I shook my head.

"Guys..." I muttered, and Zelda laughed out loud. We trudged on, snowflakes collecting on everyone's (minus Kirby and Yoshi) eyelashes. I reflected on my earlier conversation with Link, smiling from the thought of finally understanding the real meaning of his rejection.

***

The snowflakes began to thicken and fall more thickly, making it hard to see the trail. Although Kirby (who's eyes were keener, and not a victim to falling snow) insisted we should continue, the rest of us – except Yoshi – voted otherwise. So here I was, sitting on a stone-cold rock holding a frozen-solid banana. It was supposed to be part of my lunch, but it now had more of a use as a hammer than a snack. My sandwich wasn't much to bite into, either; all of our sandwiches were frozen rocks, so we sat, doing our best to thaw out our lunches. Flipping the banana in one hand, I glanced behind me to look at the gaping hole in the cavern, where all I could see was darkness. The deepness of the cave is the reason why we didn't light a fire – who knows what bear could be sleeping down there. From experience with Wario, big fat bullubbas hate being woken up too early from their sleep, and they get cranky. I don't know about you, but I am not interested in being someone else's frozen lunch.

"I MUSHY UP MAH BABY BUM-BA-BEE!" sang Yoshi, his voice incredibly high-pitched and amazingly out of tune. It was also startlingly loud; in earnest, the rest of us desperately waved our arms, trying to shush him.

"Yoshi," I hissed, "shut up!"

"WON'T MAWEEO AN' WIJI BE SO P'OUD OF ME!"

"SHHH!" we all hissed, and Yoshi stopped, looking at us with a purely innocent face.

"Wah?" he asked. All of a sudden, a loud grumbling echoed from the shadowy depths, making me turn, my blood pounding rivers of ice through my head. Oh no... I think the bear is awake.

"Oh my dear shortcake..." Kirby gasped, his eyes wide and looking into the blackness. Yep - here comes the bear, all cranky from his lair. Yoshi giggled/hummed and pointed towards the sound.

"EET'S BEEG-FOOT!!!" What?

"RUN," Kirby yelled, "IT'S A YETI!" I fell over backwards from shock. Link stood up and notched an arrow in his bow. Zelda leaped into fighting stance, an arm drawn back.

"Hey, nobody is running," Kirby said, looking around at me on the floor, and the other two prepared to defend themselves. Just then, Yoshi screamed, and flew out the entrance of the cave.

"Okay, there's one," Kirby muttered, watching him go.

"HUUH-ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!" We all jumped in our places, and I rolled onto my stomach. By thunder, _that_ is so scary – I'm about to be scared out of my shorts (if I had any). I trembled as a looming, gigantic, walking hairy carpet emerged. Its beady, black eyes barely showed from underneath its matted, brown fur, but the salivated, yellowing canines clearly showed from a heavily drooling mouth. Horrified, I watched a long strand of sticky drool drip slowly down to the cold floor. It looks hungry... Or at least rabid. But I am here to be a brave, not a coward.

"RAH!" I roared back, and the pea-brained walking carpet looked towards me, raised its lanky arms, unsheathed long saber-like claws, and let loose an earth-shaking roar.

"Rah?" I squeaked, terrified. I squeezed my eyes shut, and heard a thin object whizzing through the air, and land into a thick object with a "shunk!"

"HUH-ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRR!!!" I peeped open an eye to see the beast wheel around to face Link, arrow plunged into its beefy shoulder. Link pulled another arrow from his quiver, and raised his bow to aim. Bigfoot lunged for him, and Link rolled to the side onto his knees, and shot. The arrow sailed and planted itself deep into one of the -

"EEEW!" Kirby cried, as Bigfoot roared in agony, pawing at barely visible feather tips protruding from a nostril. Yeah, eew. I glanced at Link, and shouted to him, waving my frozen banana around,

"I thought you are supposed to aim for the heart, not the head!" Link fired another arrow, sinking its head into an outstretched arm.

"It's hard to when it's always moping around!" he shouted back. Bigfoot swiped at Zelda, who jumped over its mangled claws. Quickly, I glanced around, and quickly noticed an absence.

"Wait a second," I gasped, "where's Yoshi?"

"AAAAAAH!!" Perched on top of Bigfoot's head, was the green dinosaur, pulling on the beast's eyelids, screaming in terror. Bigfoot roared, trying to buck off Yoshi, but it was no use – Yoshi only screamed and pulled on the eyelids harder.

"HELP ME!!!" I felt that Yoshi was getting very close to wailing his distress call – he would call for Mario and Luigi on top of his lungs, and they would always come, no matter where in the world he was. Kirby jumped up, sailed over the flinging claws, and pushed Yoshi off the head. Bigfoot swiped for them, and then I took action.

"Pika-CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!" Brilliant bolts of lightning sprung from my cheeks, flying towards Bigfoot, and consumed the walking carpet with twisting, bright blue electric energy. Kirby landed safely with Yoshi, both illuminated by the light. Then, he turned around, taking a boomerang from his mouth, and threw it upwards. I watched its path clearly miss the stunned Bigfoot and buried deeply into the rock ceiling. Nice miss, Kirby...

Cracks began to run all over the rock from the boomerang, and a large chunk broke free, crashing onto Sasquatch's hairy back. Tons of mangled fur, meat, and drool fell to the floor with a thunderous impact, roaring in anguish.

"Now we run!" Zelda cried, and we all took off. I was sprinting on two feet, clutching to my banana in fright, something heavy and strong pulled me back with fat fingers. I struggled, and looked back to see Bigfoot dragging me towards his greedy mouth. Oh crap!

Something green and white came whizzing past my head, and blasted into shards right between Bigfoot's eyes.

"Let 'im have it, Yoshi!" Kirby said, and Yoshi threw another white, green-spotted egg. It sailed by and hit squarely on the forehead in a burst of white. Although disorientated, Bigfoot would not let go of my foot. I looked at the banana in my hand.

"Let me go, you stupid, walking carpet!" I yelled, and started pounding each finger and knuckle on that hairy hand with the frozen banana, hard as steel. I felt one finger let go, and then another, just like in cartoons. I kept hammering away with my banana, screaming "CHEWBACCA, GET YOUR FINGERS OFF OF ME!"Somehow, the pinkie finger managed to still have a grasp, so in desperate attempt, I threw the banana. It sailed through the air, flipping and turning, until it smacked the top of the skull with a loud CRACK! Immediately, I felt the grip loosen, and I simply walked out from the palm of Bigfoot's hand. It was unconscious.

Panting, I walked towards the limp body and retrieved Link's arrows. The rest of the people, who had been waiting for me, followed in suit, plucking arrows from the various places Link had shot at. Grimacing, I pulled a particular one from a gaping hole, filled with green mucus. Holding it from the feather end, I gave it to Link without a word. Kirby eyed the boogie-ladened arrow with utter disgust.

"So," he said awkwardly, changing the tone, "what's for lunch?"

* * *

**Sorry that you had to wait so long for this poorly written chapter - I am having a hard time concentrating, due to the fact I am rooming with three other girls, one of which constantly asks for my attention. To any of those who still read this story, I am really sorry for the poor work!**

**I still need a word for giggle/hum. Any suggestions?**

**The information about the bows and arrows was recieved from a friend of mine. I give him my thanks.  
**


	17. Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan

**Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan**

All of us were in a dead run, putting as much space between Bigfoot and us as possible. The thing was, we were running into a thickening snowstorm. We were quickly becoming cold, and wet, and blinded by the blanketing whiteness. I shivered, shaking the snow off my fur, and thinking bitterly about the cold environment. Oh well, it is so much better than being eaten, in my opinion. So I guess it is safe to say that this situation is like jumping out of the fire and into a frying pan. The only problem was that if you were in a frying pan, you would be warm, like I wished to be right now.

Rubbing my cold nose, I squinted my eyes to try and see what was around me. I saw a faint silhouette of Link, and Kirby and Yoshi were on either side of me, and I could tell Zelda was right behind me – we were all here.

"Look out!" Kirby suddenly cried out. I heard the crumbling of earth, and a yelp from Link as his silhouette disappeared from view. Instinctively, I flew out and landed on my belly, sliding with hand outstretched until I grabbed Link's. Both of us slid clean over the edge of the snow encrusted cliff, and over a fifty foot drop. I signaled my tail to loop around a root poking out of the snow and knotted itself tight. Now the only thing I had to worry about was my grip on Link's fingers. Instantly, as Link fell towards the ground, my body stretched into a bungee chord, my face wincing from the pain. The fall slowed down as we reached the rocky bottom, and when Link's feet just brushed a sharp-tipped rock, we suddenly sprang back up, my body snapping together. Through all the sudden stretching, I unwound my tail around the root and I was free to sail into the air, the snow pelting my face. Once my body reached its peak in its flight, I pointed my nose into a dive and closed my eyes. Using the sounds of Yoshi's breathing, I calculated how far I was from the ground. Just at the right moment, when my fur just brushed the snow, I curled into a forward roll, completed two rotations, and landed on my two feet. Link landed beside me on his two feet, knees slightly bent to absorb shock.

"Nice save," Kirby commented, and I nodded in approval of myself. I had been practicing long hours for the art of bungee jumping. I remember that I started with a rock, in which I had it crush my fingers, fall from my hands, and land on my head as the many different failures passed in front of my eyes.

"Are you okay?" Zelda used a strong, steady arm to steady Link, and they looked face to face, eyes peering into eyes. I felt an eye twitch on my face, and I looked at Kirby, who looked like he was about to hurl.

"MEESLE-TOE!!!" Yoshi cried, holding a plant between them. The two looked at each other, and then Link tried to push Yoshi away.

"Um, that's not mistletoe," Kirby said, pointing, his face pinched, "that's a berry bush." Yoshi took a second glance at the shriveled plant he held in hands. In a flash of pink, Yoshi's tongue whipped about, plucking berries from every branch. Once the plant had been cleaned of every berry, Yoshi dropped it next to his side, and patted his stomach.

"Now I wee-mem-bah why I had it!" Yoshi sighed contentedly. I snorted, and looked towards Zelda, who had a trace of a smile on her lips as she watched Link fuss with the food supply pack.

"It's getting hard to see any dangers on the road," he said, "I think we should find a place to stay till the snow dies down a bit."

"And the wind!" Kirby cried, trying his best to keep his light body on the ground, "It's about to blow me away!" I nodded to each of the speakers in agreement, and so did Zelda. Either way, Yoshi did not care, so we did not take his vote. With Kirby in the front now to seek out possible dangers with his sharp eyes, we sought out a shelter from the storm. Blinking the searing cold snowflakes from my eyes, I had a feeling that trouble was on the horizon – already I smelt a blizzard on its way.

We had to hurry.

***

The cold, harsh wind was was biting into my body, my fur encrusted with icicles. I shivered, and shook off the ice, but I knew that in time that the ice will collect on my fur once more. My eyes burned, breathing burned, everything burned with blazing, bitter cold. We trudged on, our arms wrapped tightly around our freezing bodies, articles of clothing whipping painfully in the wind. It felt like many, many hours that we have traveled through wind and snow, but it could have been minutes. Either way, we are cold. As my teeth clattered together, and my eyes stung, I only hoped that Kirby was leading us to safety – someplace where there would be shelter from the harsh elements, and Bigfoot.

"Ah we dere yet?!" Yoshi cried to Kirby at the front of the line. We had been lined up in single file, following Kirby's every step so that we would not fall into potential, unsuspecting death traps.

"I don't know!" I heard Kirby reply somewhere ahead. It was hard to hear him through the howling wind, the very element shrieking from its own cold blood. I followed Zelda's boots, the only thing I could see through the thick precipitation, and Yoshi followed my own feet. At the front, Zelda followed Link's footsteps, while he followed Kirby's, who lead the way. As our feet carefully stepped in each other's imprints, I began to wonder whether or not this blizzard was intended to be in the exam. I hope it wasn't, because I would be caught unprepared if it was; the only other blizzard I had lived through was when I was comfortably seated in a warm house. This time, I was far away from the comforts of civilization. Heh; no matter how much I complain about our situation, I still think that it beats sitting in the belly of Bigfoot, because you can't exactly complain there.

Our path twisted and turned in unpredictable directions, at times seemingly to curve in a continuous circle. Where are we going? To safety – hopefully. This search seems to never end. We all are cold, hungry, and exhausted, all adding up to complete misery, with our hopes slowly slipping away like our remaining warmth in our bodies.

For what seemed to be another two hours come and gone, I heard Kirby tell us to hurry. Blinking back what I could of the cold from my eyes, I spotted through the thick sheet of snowstorm a gaping black hole yawning at the side of a mountain. A cave! A place for at the moment is so holy and heaven like for us frozen vagabonds. I felt myself drop on all fours, and drag my limp body in, breathing hard from the effort. I felt a strong arms pull me to my feet, and leaned me back against a rock. My eyes started to drift close from weariness.

"Wake UP!" I felt a stinging slap smack me across the face, and my eyes flung open. I rubbed my numb cheek, and glared at Kirby.

"Don't fall asleep, whatever you do." Kirby warned. I stuck out my tongue.

"Why not?" I shot back.

"You'll die." He said simply. Suddenly, my fury vaporized to thin dust, and my mouth hung open.

"Seriously?"

"As ever." he affirmed. I forced my eyes wide open, and constantly pinched my arm to stay awake. I don't want to die, and I don't plan to. I looked around at everybody, and found Yoshi knocked out cold on the floor. Fear shot through my body at once.

"Yoshi, wake up!" I cried, and used my hands to try and shake him awake. My hands touched his green body, and they realized something very odd. Yoshi was not freezing like the rest of us, but very, very warm. My hand trembled as it felt Yoshi's warm cheek. How the heck did this happen? Yoshi smiled and stirred in his sleep.

At the moment, Link was hunched down over a small ring of stone with meager scraps of brown leaves and twigs, frozen and caked with ice. This was supposed to be our fire, but as far as I'm concerned, this doesn't look too promising. Kirby sighed and watched Link scratch two rocks without no success.

"I could help, you know," he said, "just a little." We would need all the help we could get now, so how could Link say no? He simply stood up and backed away, as Kirby coughed out a crown laced with blazing fire, and stuck it into the ring of stones. The light in the green gem sparkled and danced with the heat, mesmerizing us with its beauty. It was Kirby's Fire Hat, one of the many hats he kept in a trunk in his room. It was rather lucky of us, I thought as I was slowly thawing out, that Kirby decided to bring this hat along on the trip. We all started to take off wet garments, and toasted them close to Kirby's hat. Next came our sandwiches, which we ate gratefully when they became warm enough to sink our teeth in (well, let's exclude Kirby). For a while, as water evaporated off our garments, we simply chowed down without a single word, ravenous and starved. The only one who wasn't feasting was Yoshi, who was fast asleep on the floor. I might as well, when I am warm enough, sleep along with him. I, for one, am exhausted and deprived of energy. As I digested my meal, I awaited for my body to completely heat to body temperature before sealing my eyes closed. Slowly, life began to return back to my fingers and toes.

"Kirby," Zelda said, causing the pink puffball to look up from his quality eating time, "you should save some of your sandwiches." Kirby looked at the sandwich he was about to inhale.

"But I'm hungry," he complained. I rolled my eyes,

"You are _always_ hungry," I sighed. Kirby frowned.

"But I'm _really_ hungry, so hungry I cannot stand it!" Kirby cried out, and inhaled the sandwich. Link sighed in exasperation.

"You know we only have so-and-so amount of sandwiches." Kirby took out another sandwich and held it by the fire.

"I know," he said, "I just hope that 'so-and-so' is a big number." Gingerly, he poked the sandwich, and then turned it over in his hands. Well, I guess there is no stopping Kirby now. I walked over to my sleeping bag, which was draped over a rock by the fireside, and dragged it over by Yoshi's sleeping body. Burying myself deep under its protective warmth, I let my eyes drift close.

I wonder how long this would last, with us stuck in the blizzard like this. The exam was only meant to be three days long, but would it have to stretch longer with this weather? What happened to the others taking this exam? Are they barely alive? Thriving? Dead? Would they ever get home? Would _we_ ever go home, alive? I hugged my body with shaking arms. I remembered long ago I was at a starting line, eager to get the exam moving, bristling with excitement. What seemed like a dream of adventure turned into a miserable nightmare. How long have we been out here anyways? Two days? Three? Four? So much time passed without me knowing about it. Would Mr. C send out rescue parties to find us and the others? Turning each question over in my mind, equally giving them a chance to burn, I knew that I wouldn't b able to sleep well until they were answered.

***

About one or two days later, the snow had thinned out enough to permit travel again. By now, we were running short on food supplies, so we immediately packed our bags and moved out. For the last few days, we had been living off of granola bars, so anything else would taste the best on earth. I sniffed around for any roots, berries, or other forest edibles scattered across the forest floor. Soon, my nose picked up a whiff of a rich, nutty smell. I scurried over to a patch of snow, and dug through it to find a pine nuts wedged neatly in a pine cone. I snatched it up, and began picking away at my prize. Link was away, hunting for deer. I decided that I will not join him, for I was not fond of meat. Sure I drank milk, ate eggs and fish, but I did not eat much more meat than that. Throwing away the pine cone, I searched for a new snack. Meanwhile, Kirby was trying to determine our location, studying the map carefully. At the moment, he looked very puzzled. Noticing his troubled face, I walked over to see if he was okay.

"Wazzup?" I asked. Kirby sighed and turned the map on its side and examined it.

"Nothing around here aligns with the map." he said, and walked over to an edge of a drop-off. Pointing to a mountain, he said,

"We shouldn't be looking at that mountain," he said, "nor that glacier." My mind began to comprehend the point Kirby was trying to make. I didn't want to believe it.

"We shouldn't be standing on this cliff, either." Kirby said, looking down at the ground below us. My hands went numb with horror.

"If there were any search parties sent out," Kirby said slowly, "they will never be able to find us." Suddenly, I realized the predicament, the truth hitting me hard in the chest. I staggered back.

"Pikachu," Kirby said, "we're lost."

* * *

**Sorry for writing such brief descriptions! I am not so fond of this part of the story, so I might not do so hot from my disdain. **

**I want to thank Slasher Mask for reviews, thanks! ^^**

**And stil, I am taking suggestions for a word that can replace giggle/hum.**

**Yay or Nay? Rate and Review!  
**


	18. A Reason Why I Don't Like Smoky the Bear

**A Reason Why I Don't Like Smoky the Bear**

So, what's up with the title, anyways? Truthfully, I am not really fond of talking bears dressed in denim jeans and ranger hat telling you to prevent forest fires. Forest fires are actually necessary, for they boot up the forest life cycle all over again. What Smoky really was talking about is wildfires. Now, wildfires are bad – they go everywhere and burn everything except Mario's fireproof overalls. Despite my dislike for the bear, I got to go through one of his magazines and rewrite the whole comic in gangsta talk, which gave me a reason to like him, just a little bit.

But right now, I was in a too desperate of a situation to care at all for him, Smoky da Bear or not. We are lost, and we don't know where in the world we are, or how far away we have gone from the trail. We could be in Russia, for all I care. I wasn't exactly in the greatest mood, with all of us stranded in the middle of nowhere, far from help. I used to laugh at the easiness of the exam, but now, this put our survival to its limits. It is indeed survival of the fittest. It's just... am I fit enough? Even more stressful to think about is the possibility of me never returning home. Ever.

But I had to try. As the quintet gathered in the clearing, and discussed our dire complication, I thought about possible ways how to get help. We could light a large fire, but then it might get out of hand. We wouldn't want that happening.

"Link?" I tugged on his sleeve and he looked down on me.

"Are we going to call for help?" I asked. Link's blue eyes shifted uneasily.

"Pikachu," he said, "first we need to address our needs – food." I nodded. Our packs had grown considerably lighter over the past few days, and so have we. Now, I wish for those granola bars again. It's winter after a blizzard, which meant that the pickings are slim. Majority of the plants around here are all shriveled up, lacking nutrients, and even less space to fill the tummy. I agree with Link – who knows how long it will take till a search team finds us; we should stock up on food first.

So, we planned to gather up as many little morsels as possible and hit the road. Looking up at the stars, Kirby calculated that we have traveled northeast from the road. Link now adjusted his compass so that it pointed north, and used a confident finger to point west – the direction we needed to take to get back onto the trail. This plan gave me refreshed hope, a bright new outlook on the situation. The problem was, as we looked over the cliff that faced westward, how are we going to cross this deep ravine? Kirby tapped the side of his face thoughtfully.

"There is no other way," he said, "we have to go around it." I looked to the left, and then the right – as far as my eye can see, I saw no part where the two places connected, no land bridge, or anything.

"Can't we just fly across?" I asked him. Kirby gave me a funny look.

"Okay," he said, giving me a small push in the back, "go ahead and flap you arms." I looked down on the tiny ribbon of blue below, which was supposed to be a river, and gulped.

"Okay, okay," I said, "I got your point."

"How deed we get ovah here, den?" Yoshi asked, which struck me as the most intelligent question I have ever heard from him. How did we get over here, anyways? If there was a big chasm that separated us from here and the trail, then how is it possible that we made it over here? Kirby was thinking the same thing too.

"Well, if we somehow landed over here," he reasoned, "we can somehow get back over there – it's only logical."

"That means we have to retrace our steps, and go back," Link said, and Kirby nodded.

"It's the only sure way I could think of." the pink puffball admitted, turned on his heel, and started to walk in the opposite direction. The rest of us, not knowing what else we could do, followed in suit, trudging in silence.

***

After an hour or two, Pikachu became bored of the silence and decided to spice things up by speaking in third person perspective. As the quintet marched on through the snow, the sun brightly shining overhead, Pikachu spoke.

"Pikachu is thirsty for some water." she said, and Kirby gave her a funny look.

"There's water all around you, just in solid form." Kirby said to her, "Why are you talking like that, anyways?" Pikachu scratched her ear and sighed in impatience.

"I – er, Pikachu is bored, and wishes to speak in third person." Kirby raised his non-existent eyebrows.

"What does dat mean?" Yoshi asked curiously. Kirby turned to the green dinosaur.

"It means that instead of saying 'I', or 'me', or 'you', or 'yours', or 'mine', or 'we'," Kirby explained patiently, "she uses her name, the name of the person she is speaking to, and 'their'." Yoshi began to higgle, pressing both of his hands to his mouth.

"Dat si-wee!" he exclaimed loudly, and higgled some more. Pikachu thought otherwise.

"Silly, it is not," Kirby grunted, sounding very similar to Yoda, "fun, third person speech is, hermm." Yoshi laughed, and attempted mimicked the Yoda-hum, but all it sounded like was when someone passed gas while sitting on a wooden floor, causing the entire group to laugh.

After a while, Pikachu decided that she should stop talking in third person perspective, but it was hard for her to. It became a second nature thing.

"Okay," she said, "this is getting on my nerves – can someone help Pikachu out, please?" Well, at least some of her first person speech is coming back. I was thinking hard about Pikachu's predicament, when she decided that it would be a bright idea if I would start speaking in a different way. In doing so, Pikachu could stop speaking in third person; but what should I speak in?

"Help! I cannot stop; Third person has brain-washed me; this is my haiku." I said to everyone who would listen. Link turned around to look at me, an eyebrow raised.

"Speaking haiku, I see, hermm," Kirby observed, tapping the side of his face thoughtfully. Yoshi higgled and tried to Yoda-hum again. Link huffed in exasperation.

"Can you stop talking like Yoda, please?" he begged. Kirby rounded on him with a glare in his blue eyes.

"Beastly, Yoda is; to the moon, he will kick you; mess with him, do not." It took me a moment to realize that Kirby just said his words in haiku format – not only that, but kept his Yoda talk. Pretty nifty move there, Kirby.

"_This_ is going to last for a while." Link groaned.

"Herrmm?" Yoshi hummed.

***

By sunset, I was finished with all kinds of weird talk, and back to my normal self. Snapping twigs along the way, the trail of broken stems leading back to camp, I scouted out with the rest of the KPY for food. With the orders telling Link and Zelda to stay and guard camp from bears and whatnot, I was permitting them some alone time together – I did not forget my promise to help Link with his girl-issues, so what better idea is there than to just leave the two alone with a breath-taking sunset hanging over the snow-capped peaks? Smiling, being pleased with my ingenious idea, I plucked a mushroom, and sniffed it to make sure it was edible. It was, and I took off a wrapped bundle tied to my back, opened it up, and added the little mushroom to my harvest. To cover more harvest-ground area, we decided to split up to find food. So here I am, alone with my bag of mushrooms. I retied the bundle, settling it on my back and knotted the rope around my waist. With that finished, I moved on, snapping twigs along the way till I found another edible. I crawled on the ground on all fours, sniffing for a whiff of something to eat. While doing so, I picked up a trace of something that I found rather odd. The scent was of other fur-clad creatures.

And metal. The sharp, tangy odor was on the fur-clad creatures, and by the strength of the smell, there were many of them, and they were close-by. I began to wonder if they were a rescue party, so I decided to do a little investigating. Creeping slowly through the underbrush, I listened for any sounds. The closer to the scents I got, I began to hear a single, strong voice talking. Quietly, I crept behind a tree and peered around the trunk, and my mouth dropped at what I saw. Instead of a rescue team, I saw dozens and dozens of rats all decked in metallic armor. These armored rodents were grouped together around a single brown, squat rat in the middle. He, too, was clad in armor. I guessed he had a somewhat of a high rank, for everyone one else was listening to him. I squinted at the figure. He had brown fur, with streaks of gray, indicating he was rather old. Out of his two, large ears, his left one was torn. A lightning shaped cut, pale against his dark brown fur ran over his right eye, two glistening, emerald specks on his face. He was rather short and well-rounded, but he had a wickedly long tail, even for a rat. It estimated about three times as long as his height, making up a thick, black serpent. Right now, it twisted and whipped about as he spoke, his tail seemingly similar to a snake, ready to strike at a person who defied his rule. I observed this rat for some time, not quite paying attention to what he was saying. I did not need to hear his words to make it clear that he was not the person you wouldn't want to bother. His small stature was made unapparent with his loud, deep, and powerful voice, which rang clear and strong in the cold, winter air.

The rat gave some last words, and the gathering broke apart. Suddenly aware that some people were coming my way, I scurried up a tree and hid away in the leaves as best as I could. Something in my mind told me they were up to no good, so it was best I should hide, and pray that I wouldn't be found. Breathing as softly as I could, I pushed past some leaves to see rats marching below me. Staying as still as I could, I waited for them to leave.

Several minute later, I saw no one, so I began to climb down the tree. I was on a lower branch when I saw the long-tailed rat walking my way. My heart pounded fast, and I hurried back up the tree, spilling leaves along the way. I looked down to see the rat look down at the leaves, and look up at the tree, searching it with his green eyes. He stood there for a while, which gave me enough time to see the golden sheath, with a golden, jeweled hilt glinting in all its deadly glory. I wonder how many lives had he slain with that thing... I shuddered to think that if I made the wrong move, I may be the next number in line.

"General Talons!" a voice called out, and another armored rat ran up to the old rat. General Talons looked at the other with a cold expression.

"What is it?" he said, his voice curt.

"Experiment E3R4 has escaped and gone missing!" the other said, and General Talons spat in disgust, but didn't say anything further. The other rat left, leaving General Talons alone, and staring at the tree I was shaking in. To my dismay, the thing branch I stood on began to split under my weight. Too afraid to move, I just fell along with the broken branch, landing right in front of the old rat. General Talons stepped back in surprise. I shook off the leaves on my head and rubbed my sore backside. Suddenly, I heard the scraping of metal, and I twisted my head to see a long blade pointing against my neck. I looked up to see General Talons holding out his sword, his eyes glinting maliciously.

"Are you a spy?" he hissed, and I gulped. But, being me, I blurted out something before I could stop my tongue.

"Are you the tooth fairy?" I said, and squeaked in fear when I felt the cold metal being pressed against my neck. General Talons's eyes narrowed.

"So you think you are funny, eh?" he said in deadly whisper.

"No," I squeaked, when I realized he meant it to be a question unanswered. I looked uneasily at the blade pointed at my neck. Something flared inside me, telling me that I am not going to be the hopeless person taking everyone's crap. I glared at him, and pushed the sword aside with a hand.

"You know what," I said, "you are violating my personal bubble with that toothpick of yours, so if you would excuse me, I would get that thing out of my way so I could go pick some more mushrooms." General Talons raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. Maybe no one has ever talked back to him before, which would explain his shock. To my own surprise, he lowered his blade, and sheathed it in its golden case. His frown was cold as stone, but his eyes twinkled, as if he was laughing on the inside. I looked deeper into his eyes, and saw a tinge of sadness. I decided to read his mind quickly with my electrical senses, and found that he was experiencing a sort of deja vu, involving someone that he missed terribly. Before I could find out who, General Talons said,

"You've got guts, kid," and left, leaving me alone and puzzled. I stood there for a while, before heading back to camp, following my trail of snapped twigs.

***

When I arrived at an empty campsite, with the tent battered and ripped to shreds, and weapons missing, I felt that something was wrong. I dropped my bag of mushrooms and ran down a path of trampled vegetation, trying my best not to trip over the debris. Suddenly, I felt the ground below me vanish and I fell face-flat into the mud.

"Schnitzel-sticks!" I spat, and then saw what I landed in. I stood up, mud dripping from my face, and looked down at the large, bear track. Warmth drained from my face, leaving me cold with horror. I slowly raised my head, my eyes following the bear tracks through the mud. Oh no... I started running again, with the hope that Smoky did not come along with a hungry belly. Swerving around the broken undergrowth, I quickened my pace, hoping that I wasn't too late.

Finally, I broke through a clearing, to find a vast glacier clinging to the edge of a fault. On the massive chunk of ice was a great bear, with Kirby in its jaws, and the other three trying to free him. Immediately, I went to action, never forgetting the vow I swore to. I ran on all fours, gaining incredible speed, and rammed my hard skull into the bear's side. The momentum made the bear stumble, its jaws loosening around Kirby. Kirby fell from its mouth, and Yoshi leaped up and caught him by the saddle. The green dinosaur ran by me and Kirby grabbed my hand and hoisted me up.

"What's going on?" I yelled so Kirby could hear me over the bear's roars.

"Bear attack on camp!" Kirby panted, breathing hard. I leaped off of Yoshi's saddle, and clung to the furry back of the bear. I raised my fist to punch, but no normal punches would do for my small knuckles. I felt the electricity in my blood begin to flow quickly, zapping and sparking. I closed my eyes, and let it accumulate around my fist, which a blue halo began to surround it, wisps of bright blue energy snapping and twisting around it. Just as I fully charged, I had lost my grip, and as I was falling, the bear lunged at me, the ivory fangs glistening with saliva, its thick lips pulled in a snarl. I pulled back my fist and threw it right in the face of the bear. There was a burst of bright light, and the bear was flung away a hundred yards from the force and energy. I tumbled onto the ground, rolling in the dirt. Wincing from the harsh impact, I got back on my feet, and ran towards the action, sparks flying off my cheeks, its raw energy searing my face. Kirby ran beside me, wearing a green cap, with a sword suffused in fire drawn. I looked at him.

"Since when did you have that?!" I yelled to him. He smiled.

"Forever ago!" he hollered, and then jumped high into the air, swinging the sword over his head and sliced down onto a tree, shearing off a large portion. Branches and leaves, bristling with fire, landed in front of the bear, postponing his attack on Link and Zelda, buying them time to escape from their trapped corner. The bear turned its massive head, stood tall on its hind legs, and roared, shaking its heavy ruff around the thick neck.

I would roar right back if I could, but all I could do was,

"Pi-KA!" I called out defiantly, promising not to back down. A lightning bolt struck down from the heavens, punctuating my call with crashing thunder. Smoky has no idea about the fight he's about to pick.

The arrows that protruded from the mane of the bear clattered together as the bear landed on all fours, and pawed the ground. I, too, crouched on my limbs, and my cheeks flared with electricity. At the same moment, we both lunged, our claws flung out, ready to slash at flesh and fur. Even if mine were a tad bit tiny, those bear claws cannot compare to the streams of electricity zapping off of them.

In mid air, rat and bear clashed. I dug my claws deep, sending bolts of energy snaking around the bear's body. The bear roared, and used a massive paw to rake across my back. I let go, gasping in pain, and the bear threw its head down to chomp its savage teeth into me. I closed my eyes tight.

Suddenly, I heard a roar of pain, and I peeped open one eye to see an arrow buried deep into the snout of the bear. I dropped to the ground, my back stinging. Funny, Link's arrows never looked like those... I turned to see who it came from. Just in time, my eye caught a glint of a golden sheath, and a trailing, snaking, black tail disappearing into the forest. I blinked, and he was gone.

I did not have enough time to let the thought linger before the bear was rampaging again, nearly trampling me as it ran over to Kirby and Yoshi. Like a knight on steed, Kirby had his sword drawn, and Yoshi charged, head out in front. It was incredible – I never seen Yoshi run as fast, his orange shoes blurred by such velocity. With that force, Yoshi rammed his head into the bear, knocking it over like a bowling pin. I watched the furry beast sail through the air, sure that it would run away now. But as it crashed, and pushed itself to its feet and roared menacingly at us, I knew it wasn't backing down. Something was wrong.

I looked at a pool of blood, tainted with the smell of bear and something else. I sniffed, and in disgust, I reached in and pulled out a metallic dog tag. Wiping the scarlet fluid off, I read the engravings in it: E3R4. The missing experiment that the one rat was talking about. I looked up at the bear, and then down at the tag, and assumed that the bear was the experiment. I tried to get to my feet, but then intense pain shot through my back, as if the bear had sunk its claws in again and ripped across my back a thousand times. Tears welled up in my eyes, wincing from the harsh, brutal pain, and I gasped. Through my blurry view, I saw Link and Zelda run by, Link holding a sword, and Zelda a longbow. They were off to battle, as Kirby and Yoshi were. Here I am, the first to be severely injured – and am I going to sit here like this?

No. Shaking and shuddering, I raised onto my feet, gritting my teeth to keep in a loud wail. Glancing around, I looked for a way to stop the bear from attacking us any further, since it looked like it wasn't going to halt and flee anytime soon. If we tried burning it, then it would run around and light the forest on fire – not a good idea. I hastily looked around for any other options, and my eyes lit on the glacier that clung to the cliff.

"Kirby!" I yelled, "The glacier!" Somehow and some way, Kirby understood what I was talking about. Instantly he began yelling out orders to push the bear onto the glacier, in which everyone else followed, creating a semicircle around the beast. With jabs, leers, arrows, and eggs, the bear began to back out onto the ice. Not far enough, Kirby, I thought, keep going! Yoshi threw an egg, that I estimated at eighty miles per hour, and it slammed right into the bear's belly. The bear flew back and collapsed onto the ice twenty yards away.

"Kirby, now!" I cried, "While it's still down!" Kirby jumped high into the air, and swung his sword down, through the air, a flaming crescent erupting off of the fiery sword and sliced right through the glacier. Kirby landed on the cliff, and nothing happened – for now. Suddenly, loud groaning noises echoed through the chasm, and the glacier started to shake. It was breaking apart.

"Hurry!" Kirby called to the others, "Get off the glacier!" Everybody began to make their way to land as fast as they could, including the bear.

"HURRY!" I hollered. Yoshi made it onto the cliff, and Link right after. We all turned to look at Zelda, who was still running, with the bear a few feet away.

"Zelda!" Link cried out. The glacier started to break apart, large chunks falling away into the darkness. The girl leaped from cluster to cluster, the bear at her heels. A few inches away from the bear was vanishing ice, as the footing they stood on fell down, down into the deep. Pick up your heels, girl!

Suddenly, the block of ice in front of Zelda fell away, and below her the ice shuddered and began to fall. Instinctively, I got to my feet and ran towards the edge of the cliff as fast as my little feet could carry me, and slid on my belly, grabbing her hand. But she continued to fall, crying out in pain, and so did I. I looked up to see the cliff disappear under me, and felt gravity pulling me down. Biting to Zelda's leg was the bear. I growled, and let go of Zelda, and tightened my body into a dive, causing my body to fall faster. I felt myself brush the tops of the bears ears, and then I dug my claws into them, and yanked them to the left, away from Zelda. The bear let go of its grip and slammed me into the rocky wall, burying me deep into it. I sat inside my vertical crater until I recovered my senses. I shook my head and bolted my head out of the hole just to see two gigantic plumes of water splash in the river far down below. I felt my arms weaken beneath me, and I collapsed onto my stomach, staring down at the river, and started to cry, my teardrops following Zelda's path down the abyss.

Oh Smoky, look what you've done.

* * *


	19. What Mario Found in the Plumbing

**What Mario Found in the Plumbing**

"Pikachu!" I heard Kirby call out to me, but I made no effort to answer him. I allowed the half of my body hanging over the void that Zelda plummeted to her death dangle, motionless. I felt nothing, not the strain of gravity threatening to pull me down to Zelda's fate, not the blood rushing to my head, not even the chill of the ice mingling against my open wound – nothing but overwhelming shock and guilt. I could have done something – anything. I stared down, the wind swinging my limp arms, my eyes adding to the river of tears that Zelda had drowned in. I never really known Zelda that well, but her death was still a huge blow to me – especially if I allowed it to happen. It was my darned idea to get the bear on the glacier, and look what happened.

"Pikachu!" I felt a strong but stubby arm pull me by my ear from my crevice, and lift me higher and higher, up and away, painfully tugging on my ear. And then I was set on the ground, belly-down (I had the gigantic scar on my back). Kirby's face loomed over my vision of the sky, his eyes as deep indigo as the evening sky around us.

"Pikachu," he said, his mouth kept barely open, his voice small, "are you okay?" I flicked my eyes to look at him, feeling very glum. Just then, I caught sight of a root poking out of the ground just at the cliff's edge, where I could have tied my tail and bungee jumped and saved Zelda. Stupid... I never noticed until now. But it's too late. I felt as though I was a pathetic life form, without a family that wanted me, without a real purpose in life except to graffiti on Jigglypuff's face in her sleep. I sighed and closed my eyes. In the background, I heard Yoshi wail – his voice was usually playful, higgling like a pipsqueak pony, but now it was the most mournful sound I have ever heard. His wail traveled about, ringing in the cold, empty air, echoing throughout the mountains. It sounded so helpless and heartbreaking, the only sound of life around – alone. The green dinosaur took a deep breath and started to wail again.

"MAWEEO! WIJI!!!!!" he cried, and no matter where he was in the world, Mario and Luigi would come. It was his distress call, which he only cries when he is extremely upset or frightened.

I'd say he was extremely upset this moment, as we all were.

"What's-a wrong, Yoshi?" I heard the greeting of Mario, his brown shoes shuffling around. I heard another pair of feet follow his footsteps. Yoshi sobbed, hiccuping every now and then as he babbled about gummy bears. Somewhere to the left of me, I heard Link cough.

"Where's-a Zelda?" I heard Luigi ask. Silence only followed, until Kirby said, awkwardly,

"Well, she kinda... fell." I heard the Italian man hum, perhaps looking over the edge of the cliff, tapping his chin. But I did not get the response I expected.

"Oh, what a lucky duck!" he said brightly. I felt something burst inside me and I flung my eyes open to look at him.

"You mean a sitting duck!" I yelled, furious, "Can't you see? She's dead!" Luigi raised an eyebrow, and shrugged.

"Okay, if you say so," he said, ignorantly dismissing the subject, "Oh, by ze way, the search and-a rescue par-tays are looking all-a over for you guys – do you want to come-a home?" Did I? I was exhausted, pained, grieved, and needed medical attention. Yes, I would like a warm bath and bed, but something held me back.

It was only an exam, this race, but Zelda's death proved it to be more than just that. It became important, and a painful memoir, a burden to bear. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard General Talons voice,

"You've got guts, kid," Did I? Can I go any further? The pain was searing across my back, but succumbed to the bleeding guilt that poured out. I decided that I would complete what Zelda never got to do, even if I have to do it myself. Somehow, the others were thinking along the same lines as me – we looked up, meeting each other's gazes, and nodded.

"We're gonna finish that race." I said.

***

Luigi had dropped us off on the other side of the ravine, and from there, the four of us trekked onward on the trail we were supposed to follow in the first place. Slowly, and carefully, we walked along, without saying a word. The funniest (and perhaps the saddest as well) thing was that we were only within a good day's travel from the finish line. We were that close before we veered away in the blizzard.

As for what happened in between those times, I couldn't really keep track of them. My young mind was dazed with the shock of death itself – we would be the only team who suffered a fatality. Keeping my eyes along the ground of the path, I moved one foot in front of another, one step at a time. It's funny, walking seemed to become a huge effort to achieve without breaking down and giving up.

But I never give up. I never will, no matter what circumstance. It may be to the point that no one supports me, it may be to the point where it is just silly, but I will not give up – ever. I will only change my mind.

But situations like this that was set before me and the rest of us is something I can't make my mind and willpower refuse. Zelda would have wanted us to finish the race. Thinking about Zelda and how guilty it made me feel made me thought about someone who probably was completely crushed by her passing. I barely knew her at all, and yet Link knew her for like all of his life; she was his best friend and secret crush. If I felt this bad, Link must feel much, much worse. He must be sorely regretting for never telling Zelda his affections (urgh, I feel like someone's social counselor).

The hours passed by quickly, as did the sun over our heads, and we were heading into the golden sunset by the time we saw the tents of medical and rescue teams at what was the finish line. Silent, and staring blankly forward, we trudged on, looking at the scene of civilization, made somewhat holy feeling by the bright, gold hue. What happened next seemed to pass in silence and slow motion. Someone had spotted us, walking out of the forest, and started waving and pointing to us, yelling to the others. The people rushed in as a wave with blankets, warm clothing, first aid kits, granola bars, and many words and questions concerning our condition. I let them flow past me, feeling very pained. No one bothered me, just the way I wanted. I don't have much courage to deliver the news of Zelda's death.

"Pikachu," I heard a familiar, calm voice, his silhouette casting me in shadow. I looked up to see our D.O. Fenses instructor, Mr. C. In his eyes, I saw my reflection, my face looking very forlorn. It was obvious to me that I couldn't hide the secret much longer.

"Are you all right?" Mr. C asked, kneeling and brushing the top of my head in comfort, "I'm so glad that all of you made it."

"Not all of us," I managed to choke out, and began to cry again, the teardrops running one after the other. Mr. C looked shocked, and glanced around at us. Immediately, he knew who was missing. Without a word, he patted me on the back, silently telling me he was sorry.

I kept crying, out of exhaustion, and out of grief, eventually falling back onto the ground, the wound on my back bleeding again. Mario had made a temporary bandaging over it, but the wear and tear of the trail broke it apart. Before I could say anything else, to call for medical attention, the world blacked out.

***

My eyes peeped open, to see green. I closed them, and reopened my eyes all the way to see Yoshi's nose right up in front of my face.

"Yoshi," I said weakly, blinking, "I'm alive – you don't need to be that close." Yoshi turned around to look at Kirby, who was peering at me from behind him.

"Is she dead?" he asked Kirby, who gave me a questioning look.

"No," he said, and Yoshi swung his head to look at me, his eyes brightening.

"PEE-KAH-CHOO!!!!!" he cried, and clutched me in his rib-cracking grasp, sobbing. I gasped for breath, clawing the air furiously.

"Yoshi, that's enough," Kirby touched Yoshi's arm, and the dinosaur let go, sucking his thumb. Kirby sighed, and handed him a berry tart, which Yoshi took gratefully, and began nibbling away at it. The pink puffball then looked at me, his eyes telling me that he needed to explain some things that happened, but allowing me to ask the first question. I shifted under the white bedsheets, sitting up and leaning against the snowy pillow.

"What day is it today?" I asked.

"It's Wednesday, December the twenty-fourth," Kirby answered, and I nearly jumped out of my bed.

"Christmas eve already?" I cried, "I wanna get to the Castle in the Air immediately!" But then I felt a huge blow in my stomach – I just remembered that the whole family and friends was not going to be there on Christmas Day, not this time, and not ever again. Kirby sighed, thinking about the same thing too.

"Pikachu," he said, eying the tight bandage that wrapped around my waist, "I think this might help you, since your blood runs by electricity." He pulls out a nine volt battery from behind him, and held it out to me. I took it from his stubby pink hand, stared at it for a long time, not knowing what to do.

"Well, what do you want me to do with it?" I asked him.

"Your supposed to eat it, I guess," he said, "perhaps the electrical energy inside the battery will help you heal." I gave him a funny look – wasn't there indigestible substances in there?

"It's only a theory," Kirby said quickly, "You don't have to try it." I glanced at him, and then at the battery. Eating a battery? What other crazy things did he want me to do? Ah well, this dark hour needs a bit of light humor in it, or else I would go insane. I held the battery to my face, and tentatively licked it with my tongue. Instantly, I felt a little zing spread throughout my entire body, and a warming sensation tingle on my back. I looked at the battery carefully.

"You know," I said, "this actually might work." And I shoved the whole nine-volt in my mouth, my cheek bulging. Kirby's face twitched twice, and he cracked up, pointing and laughing at me. Yoshi looked up to see Kirby, and immediately he started cackling along with him, not even glancing once at me. He doesn't need any reason to laugh.

"Well," Kirby finally sighed, wiping a tear from his eye, "it seems that we have came in first." My jaw dropped open and the battery fell out. Kirby snickered.

"Bu-but how?" I asked, "We were in, like, last!" Kirby coughed before answering, trying not to laugh.

"Apparently the rescue teams found everyone else before they finished the race, so technically they didn't complete it – we were the only ones who did." I felt my smile falter.

"Not all of us," I added quietly, and Kirby nodded solemnly. Looking around, I did not see the fourth person in the remainder of our group. I suppose Link was alone, mourning. Poor him.

"I need to talk to someone," I said, and hoisted myself out of the bed, my strength regained by Kirby's epic genius-ness. I pushed past the opening of the tent, and walked around, looking for a teen in green.

I found Link sitting by himself on the outskirts of the encampment, his head bowed. I quietly walked up to him, and plopped my bottom down beside his still body. I sat there, thinking, staring out into the mountains.

"You know," I finally said, "Zelda wouldn't want you to be unhappy." No response, but I continued.

"Especially you," This time, Link did look up, his face contorted with self affliction.

"I'm sorry that she had to... you know," I said, unable to bring the word up, "and I am sorry that you have to deal with it 'cuz you knew her the most." I didn't feel like saying "loved her the most" - it may make him feel bad. Link only sighed and buried his face into his crossed arms, tucking his knees under them. I gazed at him, not knowing what to do. Frowning, I awkwardly reached over and gave him a sort of pat on the back.

"You know," I said, thinking back on earlier memories, "a not so tall bow is called a short bow." I heard him snort in amusement. My ears flicked, picking up the sound of someone walking towards us. I turned around and saw Luigi.

"Okedokey, it's-a time to go-a home!" he exclaimed, and I stood up, eager to go back to the Castle. Link made no movement.

"What's-a eating him?" Luigi asked me, pointing to Link with his thumb. Apparently, the news of Zelda's passing didn't affect him.

"He's a bit down," I answered sadly.

"No kidding – he's-a on the ground."

"No," I said, "he's just sad." Luigi raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, so that's-a it," he said, and called over to Link, "cheer up! It's-a almost Christmas!" Link was as still as a rock.

"Oh, come on, nephew!" Luigi said, exasperated, "I could-a leave you here, if you want." Slowly, but surely, Link rose to his feet, and followed his uncle in suit. We passed by Mr. C, saying good-bye to him, rounded up Kirby and Yoshi, and left, going down a green pipe.

The warm scents and air greeted me as I rose out of the pipeline, and I breathed it all in, grateful. I looked around and saw Samus, Ness, and Captain Falcon, waiting for Link, who appeared right behind me. Samus, who was still in her armor, rushed forth and embraced her son, who was looking at her arm cannon warily.

"I think you should-a change out of zat, Sammy," said Mario, who was walking in from the kitchen. Samus looked up, nodded, and left the living room, my eyes trailing after her. For once, I will get to see her out of her "cookie foil", as so Mario and Luigi put it. Ness started to giggle a bit, his hands held mischievously behind his back. Link looked down on his little brother.

"What?" he asked, and Ness started to laugh.

"Someone's waiting for you," he said, teasingly. Link raised an eyebrow.

"OH MY GOODNESH, EETZ ZEW-DA!" Yoshi screamed and pointed somewhere behind the crowd of people. I couldn't believe my ears, or Yoshi, but out of natural instinct, I looked to where Yoshi was pointing. I soon didn't believe my eyes. There, just finished with a shower, was Zelda in her pink nightgown. Impossible... Zelda, hearing Yoshi, looked up and saw us, her lips widening into a smile.

"You guys are alive!" she cried.

"_You_ are alive!" I laughed back, "we all thought you were dead!" Zelda laughed and shook her head.

"No," she said, "Luckily, I fell down a pipe before I hit the water and now here I am!" Now I know why Mario and Luigi didn't seem so disturbed by Zelda's "death". Wow, what a miracle.

"Are you guys hurt?" she asked, worried, walking toward us. Link, who had been silent in utter disbelief and joy, said,

"No, no – only Pikachu." I grinned slyly as Zelda looked over me, touching my what was left of my wound tenderly.

"Link got a hurt pretty badly, too," I said, trying not to snicker, and Zelda looked up and Link.

"Oh dear," she said, and started fawning over him, causing him to turn a deep shade of red that I have never seen before, "are you all right?"

"No, I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, overwhelmed. I turned around and laughed silently along with Kirby and Ness.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Yoshi squealed, and we shushed him, not wanting Zelda to know it was a joke. The two turned around and looked at us as Yoshi hunched over, pressing a finger to his mouth.

"Shh! See-kwet, see-kwet!"

***

Dinner never tasted any better, the luscious lasagna melting in my mouth. While I savored it, Kirby gobbled his fiftieth serving down, Yoshi nibbled on a berry tart, and Zelda was talking to a flushed Link. All of the darkness of the day seemed inevitable now, with all the happy chatter. I finally set my fork down, and waited for desert, which today consisted of many different pies.

I never expected Samus to have blond hair, finally resting my eyes on her without her suit. She wore a modest dress, and her hair tied back in a ponytail. Now I know where Link got his blond hair and bright blue eyes from, for Samus shared those traits too.

"Oh, you just look like Mama!" Mario exclaimed to Samus, and suddenly the lady began to cry. Mario looked back to Luigi.

"You shouldn't have said that," his brother said, "she gets-a touchy about Mama."

"Well, she does look like Mama," Mario snapped back. Just then, I remembered that Mario's, Luigi's, Peach's, and Samus's parents both died when they were young. It must have been sad.

"Oh, mama-mia," Mario sighed.

"Desert is-a ready!" Luigi called out, changing the subject, and brought out savory pies. We all dug in, delighting ourselves with whatever scrumptious kind we desired. Once people started to get full, the talking resumed, carrying on conversations between bites. I just looked on, drinking from my tall glass of milk. I watched Mario carry a lemon meringue pie to his sister Peach.

"Would you like another slice, Peach?" Peach said she would. All of a sudden, Mario smashed the pie in her face, smearing it all over. All talking stopped, and everyone stared at Mario and Peach. Suddenly, another pie flew and hit Mario square on the back of his head, and he whipped around to see Samus standing, up, grinning.

"That was for my sister!" A pie flew out of nowhere and hit the side of her face.

"Zat was-a for my bro!" Luigi called, and yet another pie flew and hit him right in the face. Link stood up.

"That was for my mom!" he laughed. Not to my surprise, a pie flew out and hit Link face-first.

"That's for Uncle Luigi!" Ness cried.

"That's mah boi!" Luigi said, and Mario threw a pie at him, but Luigi ducked and it hit Jigglypuff, who toppled over with a squeak.

"What a waste of pie," Kirby muttered. The instant he said that, a pie splattered across his unsuspecting face.

"Help yourself," I said, and rolled under the table before he could hit me with his slice of lattice apple pie. Somewhere above, I could here the sounds of pie being strewn all over the walls and people, laughter mingling with it.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Yoshi cried, his mouth soon muffled by the desert.

***

After we had all rid ourselves from the sticky sweetness, it was half an hour to midnight. I was tucking myself comfortably inside my basket, grateful to sleep on pillows again. I sighed, sinking into them.

"Wow," I exclaimed, "this has been an action-packed week, hasn't it?" Kirby, who was climbing into bed, nodded.

"Yes, quite," he agreed. He reached for his sleeping cap.

"'Night, Pikachu," he called.

"Good night, Kirby," I replied.

"GOOD NIGHT, KUH-BEE!"

"'Night, Yoshi,"

"Good night, Yoshi,"

"GOOD NIGHT, PEE-KA-CHOO!" And Yoshi dropped flat on his bed, and started snoring away. Kirby shook his head and chuckled, and settled his hat on his bald pink head. I closed my eyes, but the realized I could see the light shining red through my eyelids. Frowning, I opened the circuit flow of electricity with my mind, and the light went off. That's better.

Oddly enough, Mario and Luigi started to play Jingle Bells on the intercom that was linked to several parts of the house. It lasted for a while, until -

"SHUT **UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"** The Castle shuddered with the sound of an angered Wario, and immediately the song was turned off. Kirby and I sat up straight, looking around fearfully, as Yoshi snored away in the silence. We looked at each other, shrugged, and I sank back down into my pillows.

Oh golly what a day.

* * *

**Hey guys, I finally updated the story! I'm SO sorry for the wait! I hope it is good enough...**

**I just got a new dA account, and I am posting pictures dealing with the KPY, so if you wanna check it out, help yourself! And always, keep reading and reviewing - thanks! ^^  
**


	20. Deck Ze Hall With Milez of Hollay

**Deck ze Hallz With-A Milez of Hol-lay**

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

I was jerked from sleep, my ears ringing from the sound of a gong crashing by my ear. Vibrating and shaking from the very sound waves of the giant brass instrument, I looked to see Luigi walking by me with a pair of frosty green ear muffs over his ears, beating the five-foot wide gong strapped to his front.

"WAKE UP!!!! IT'S-A TIME TO GET UP!!!! TIME TO OPEN PRESENTS!!!" Luigi left the room, slamming that brass disc as he went. Groaning, I placed a hand on the side of my head, and rubbed it back and forth. Gah, I feel like my ears are bleeding.

"WAKE UP, PEE-KAH-CHOO! WAKE UP!!!!" I felt a heavy force tackle me to the floor, or more of the bottom of my basket, higgling in childish delight.

"Yoshi... get... off..." I gasped, flailing my arms. Yoshi thrusted himself off of me, and bounded for Kirby, who was still wide-eyed from the crashing of Luigi.

"EETZ TIME TO OPEN P'ESENTS!!!!" Yoshi squealed excitedly, bouncing ecstatically up and down on Kirby's bed. Bewildered, Kirby looked over to see the time displayed on the small alarm clock at the corner of the room, clutching his sleeping cap tight.

"But it's three in the morning!" he groaned, and laid back down in bed.

"Exact-wee, we should have woke up ear-wee-er!" Yoshi cried, and started to jump on Kirby's bed again, causing Kirby to bounce up and down as well.

"Earlier?!" I complained, "How early can you get?" Somewhere in the Castle, I still heard Luigi crashing away on his gong. Crazy people... I sank back down onto my pillows, my eyes drifting close.

"YOU MUSHT SHTAY AWAKE!!!!!" Yoshi screamed, and all of a sudden, I felt a sudden rush of freezing liquid splash onto me.

"AAAH! WHAT THE - ?!!" I yelped, springing out of my bed, perhaps a little too high. My head smashed into the ceiling and I fell down on the floor, face-flat and eagle-sprawled. I didn't move, being stunned by the immense pain across my face. It was silent in the room, the only exception was the distant bonging of the gong, and groans of protest. I sniffed, making sure my nose wasn't bleeding, but instead of the smell of blood, my smelling-sensors detected something rather different. I sat up to look at Yoshi, my muscles working once again.

"You," I said, raising an arm to point at the dinosaur, raising my eyebrows, "had to dunk me with orange juice, didn't you?" The smell of citrus was covered my fur and my basket. Yoshi grinned.

"Lotsh of pulp!" he exclaimed, and higgled, rolling off of Kirby's bed and onto the floor. I huffed, rolling my eyes, as I brushed off some orange pulp from my fur. Now I have to go wash myself off before this stuff crusts on me and starts to smell terrible. I walked into the bathroom and hopped into the sink, being that I am a rather small person, do not use the bathtub or the shower. The sink in this bathroom makes a bathtub proportional to my size. I sat inside the sink, tuning the water faucets so that the water suits my liking and I began to comb the pulp from my yellow pelt, using the hands soap bar every now and then.

Somewhere over the sound of the sink water rushing through the pipes, I heard a toilet flush. Before I could react, the lukewarm water suddenly switched to freezing temperatures and I screamed, jumping as quick as I could from the sink, some soap suds still clinging to my soaked fur.

"Oops! So-wee Pee-kah-choo!"

***

By the time I made it to the Christmas tree, everyone was there, unwrapping presents, eating cookies, all the while talking to one another (actually, the only one in the corner grumbling to himself was Wario.)

Christmas was a sight for sore eyes at the Castle in the Air. Being festive folk, Mario and Luigi decked out the whole place with decorations. Colored lights twinkled and shimmered as if they were tiny fairies flitting around rather than LED lights. Every hallway was decked with boughs of holly, and miles of it due to the extensive size of the Castle. The potted plants were replaced by small Christmas trees, each equally beautiful. But none could ever rival the splendor of _The_ Christmas Tree. Towering so high that the star that crowns the sparkling majestic tower of pine needles, ornaments, lights, and stockings. Each ornament was made by the best glassblower that ever lived, each one personally done, some swirling with golden bands, or frosted with silver patterns, or even studded with jewels. But all had a tiny golden 'A' of fine calligraphy, the trademark of the glassblower. Too bad he's not around anymore – no one knows what happened to him several years ago.

I found my presents already piled neatly next to Kirby's. My pink friend waved me over, and I walked over and plopped down on my bum beside him. Kirby had already went halfway through his collection.

Now let's get something straight right here, right now – our present piles for Christmas tend to be on the larger side, but that's not, repeat NOT the reason we like Christmas. We're not spoiled brats, let me assure – I love to give presents as much as I like receiving them. But the reason for the large piles of presents is because of everyone's generous heart, especially Mario and Luigi. Their presents usually made up half of everyone's portion of presents. For the last time, we're generous folk, not BRATS (not the spoiled rich kid, not the sausage from Germany).

I always started with the presents from the KPY, being that they're my best friends. Picking up a funny shaped, hastily wrapped green lump, the weight of it weighing down my hand, I knew it had to be Yoshi's. I examined the gift, turning it over in my hand, and found a ribbon wrapped around it. I pulled on it, and the wrapping fell away to reveal...

A rock.

Well, I put that a little too frankly. It was actually a crystal, polished and shined so that it glittered, the purple hues glimmering in every angle of light. I stared at it, feeling very touched. You can call it a rock and a lame present all you want, but if you receive something from Yoshi's Shiny Collection, you are very lucky. Over the years, the dinosaur hunted down anything sparkly or shiny that caught his eye and carefully organized it in a spare closet, creating an extensive collection. Yoshi fiercely protects his bling, so receiving one of his favorite crystals from his Shiny Collection is very touching to me. Holding the precious rock in one hand, I picked up his handmade card in the other. In an extremely messy scrawl, it said:

_mUre Krismasss I hopE u lik yur pResant! - Yoshi _

I called out to Yoshi, who was passing by with a plate holding a single berry tart and a glass of milk, thanking him. The dinosaur, his eyes welling up with tears, dropped his plate and milk, and scooped me up into his usual bear hug, blabbering on about how much he was glad he liked it. The nice thing is that he really, honestly, truly meant it, but he can get... pretty... emotional... my neck...

"Yoshi!" I gasped, my voice an octave higher than usual, sounding not too far from a dying chipmunk, "That's... enough... please!" Yoshi dropped me, and moved on, picking up his downed berry tart, and leaving the milk and plate somehow neatly placed on the floor, considering it had been dropped earlier.

"This is SWEET!!!" I turned around to see Kirby peering into a box, wrapped in a fancy green wrapping paper with many white 'L's splayed all over. That's the typical wrapping from Luigi. Curious to see what was so sweet and awesome, I crawled over to see what was in the box, half expecting some nerdy gift or a new hat for his Dress-Up Wardrobe.

At this point, you're probably wondering, "Dress-Up Wardrobe?" Oh yes, Kirby has a wardrobe filled with many different types of hats he has collected over the years, some of them giving him the ability to breathe fire, ice, spin a yo-yo, or whatever, and some are just purely for decoration. It's surprising, I know, but Kirby likes to dress up, and when he wants to dress up, he means business. First, he must pick what color he must spray-paint his body (for his skin can remain unaffected by spray paint). After several hours goes by, he finally chooses a hat to wear – and of course, the hat must match his paint. That takes another set of several hours, not including the time he goes back and changes his spray paint all over again. I find this whole process tedious, and just really dumb, but at least I know what to give him for Christmas.

"What is that?" I gasped. Kirby pulled a small, shiny, metallic object, so sleek and smooth. It was a silvery, rose colored, held in the light so that it seemed like a Holy Grail. But from what I could tell is a cell phone, its physical attributes blessed by the angels.

"It is the iLuigi," Kirby said, awestruck. I squinted at the iLuigi. Obviously, by the sound of the name, it was made and dubbed by Luigi himself, and perhaps the iPhone. I suppose it was that cool phone that he invented a while back that he had to work out the kinks. I guess its up for grabs now – as far as I know from experience, this was not your ordinary blackberry. This is made by Luigi, for crying out loud! How can it be ordinary? I watched Kirby press the power button, with eagerness itching in my fingertips to see if I got one. Instead of running straight to the bundle of presents with green, white-'L'ed wrapping, I turned to Kirby's present, wrapped with the business articles from the newspaper (inside joke from way back when). Friends come first in my book of standards, always. Tearing through the monotone typing, I managed to unwrap, to my surprise, four pillows along with an envelope containing his merry Christmas wishes. Usually, I got a book or something that dealt with electronics. I looked at the pillows spilled out onto the floor before me; two of them seemed like the regular pillows you would put your head on to sleep, one of them was a bean bag pillow, and one was obviously a punching bag. I stared at the gray punching bag for a while, not exactly sure what to make of it. Finally, I picked up Kirby's envelope, ripped it open with my pinkie sliding underneath the seal. The letter dropped out onto my hand, and after brandishing it, I began to read.

_Pikachu - _

_Merry Christmas. You may be wondering why I decided to give you four pillows instead of a calculator, so I decided to remind you what Christmas notes are for._

_Two of the pillows are for regular lounging upon, or for sleeping. The beanie bag is for comfort, and the punching bag is for the times when you really have to take your anger out on something without breaking it. Knowing that you sometimes react very violently to situations, I decided it would be a great idea for you to have one, so Mario wouldn't have to be mad at you for breaking the oven again. Just don't try sleep on it, though._

_Have a happy New Year,_

_Kirby_

Well, that was nice of him – I especially liked the punching bag (getting cross with Mario is something you don't want to happen, ever). I folded the letter and placed it aside, and found my fingers pulling out Link's present. The texture appeared lopsided and lumpy, and soft shaped beneath the confines of the paper that bounded it. I used a tiny claw to tear an opening in it, and pulled out the gift, holding it out in front of me to examine it. Socks, a nice, woolen, green pair with a note attached. I could never have enough socks, especially ones that actually fit my feet, giving the men's size nine a nod. I glanced at the sticky note that was threatening to blow away.

_Keep warm, and have a Merry Christmas. - Link_

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with the socks – obviously, I couldn't wear them like they were intended to be worn (they are men's size nine, after all). Doing as Link commanded, I did the only thing that came to mind. I took one of the green socks and pulled it over a tip of my cone-like ear. I mean, what else could I do? The other green sock followed in suit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Link make a funny face from across the room. I snorted – what's wrong with the way I wear my socks? Turning to another present, one that was wrapped neatly with a pink, frilly bow, I scowled. It was from Jigglypuff. I never liked Jigglypuff's presents. I walked over to the fireplace with it and chucked it in, the flames dancing with the newfound fuel. Jigglypuff's present had always been the same, year after year – juice from a special plant that burns like acid. I wasn't tempted to feel that fiery pain again. Ah well, at least it's good for the fire. My ears picked up the sound of an explosion and a yelp from Kirby, but I paid no mind. It was probably another one of Yoshi's antics again.

Turning away from the brisk flames, I picked out a present that looked similar to the one Kirby had shown earlier (my eagerness could not wait any longer). Carefully unwrapping it (Wario hated scraps of wrappings all over the floor), my fingers soon reached around the obstacle of cardboard and touched gently on the smooth, metal surface of the iLuigi. I pulled out my new, golden and sleek phone. Oh, wow – it was such a gorgeous piece of metal, seemingly delicate. But, as I looked over to Yoshi throwing his ivy green iLuigi into the fire, and then pulling the unscathed phone, I guess it was built to be one, hardcore phone. Of course it was – it was built by Luigi, for goodness sake! The top of the phone was covered by a touch screen, and when you flip the phone open, you could see an LED screen on the top piece, and a regular number pad you'd find in the modern phones on the bottom. Along the pad, there were several buttons – there was the power button (no duh), one with "ABC" on it, one bearing the Photoshop logo (except it was red instead of blue), a blue one with a white eye on it, a green one with the eject logo on it, and one with a camera logo on it. There were the speakers to listen, and the microphone to talk into, the dots sealed with plastic. I pealed them off, tossing them into the empty present box beside me. With that taken care off, I pushed the power button, and the screens lit up, different bands of bright colors snaking and winding between the two screens. A green circle emblazoned with a white "iL" popped up in the center of the touch and LED screens a moment later before a blank white screen covered it all. A note flashed on the LED screen.

_Your phone number is: 123-456-7890._

I blinked. Wasn't phone numbers supposed to be like (_insert region number region here)[insert three numbers here]-[insert four numbers here]_?But what can you do when Luigi already assigned that number to you? I shrugged it off, and turned my attention back to the screen. There was now a new message.

_Please refer back to you iLuigi manual for instructions and troubleshooting._

All right, that was fine. The message blinked out, and then a new one appeared.

_Please refer to the touch screen on the front to navigate through the phone's features._

I snapped the phone shut, so that the touch screen was all I saw. It was white too, and now it had a new message for me to read.

_Make sure you DO refer to the iLuigi manual for instructions and troubleshooting._

I glanced back into the box that the phone was in and saw a hefty, voluminous manual sitting peacefully. I might want to skip the reading for now – I suppose I can toy around with this and work it out. The white screen went blank, and then a new message reappeared.

_Have a BLAST!_

(And there was a Shoop Da Woop Face here but obviously I can't draw it.)

Before I could react, an explosion of water squirted right into my unsuspecting eyes from the mouth of the Shoop Da Woop face (you may want to look up "shoop da woop"). I squeezed my eyelids over my stinging eyeballs shut, and turned my face away, screaming, "ENOUGH ALREADY!!!" At last, the beam of water ceased.

I rubbed my eyes with one hand, wincing from the pain, holding the iLuigi with the other. Luigi took things too literally, I thought bitterly (never mind the awesome, unintentional rhyming). I removed my hand from my sopping face, shaking it from the water it absorbed, watching my phone warily, eying the small, shiny icons line up on the white background of the touchscreen, forming the menu page. Just as soon as the little icons got themselves neatly organized, the screen lit up with blank whiteness again, and the sound of an old telephone ring sounded out of the speakers. Letters popped up on the screen.

_Incoming call..._

I flipped open the iLuigi and pressed the green phone button on the number pad to answer, holding it to my ear.

"Hello?"

**WHA-BAM!!!** I dropped the phone and held my stinging cheek, tears welling up in my eyes, howling. My ears pricked up to the sound of laughter coming from the speakers – and from across the room. I looked up to see Kirby, waving. I looked down at my phone. That was strange... How did I even get hit in the face by Kirby when he was all the way on the other side of the crowded room? It would have been impossible to cross that expansive space with the groups of people in a split second (unless if you were one of the Mario bros, of course). Suddenly, I saw a pink fist waving from the iLuigi, emerging through the LED screen; I recognized it as Kirby's hand. I glanced up to see Kirby, sticking his little fist through his phone.

"Pretty nifty, huh?" said Kirby, his voice broadcasting from the speakers, "Wanna try? All you've got to do is -" I shot my fist into the LED screen, half expecting it to smash the iLuigi in half. But my hand went clean through, feeling slightly cooled through the LED screen, and reappeared out of Kirby's phone. Lucky for the pink fellow, he held the phone away from his face. I pulled back my hand, frowning at his smirking face.

"Nice try, Pikachu," he said, "but that won't cut it." I gave him a stink-eye, and hung up on him, pressing the red phone button.

***

The new phone proved to be more complicated than I had thought. I had settled on a chintz armchair in a quiet corner, not minding the potatoes growing underneath the cushion, with the heavy iLuigi manual. There was so much to understand about it.

Apparently, you could send 3-D objects through the LED screen, just as long you are conversing with another person. Luigi, in the book, explained that when a conversation between two iLuigis are held, a temporary pipe (invisible to sight, untouchable to the touch – you wouldn't even know it was there unless if you were told it was) is formed between the two LED screens, which enables objects to pass through from phone to phone. Pretty cool, huh?

There was Mario's version of Photoshop, in which all editing and drawing is conducted through the touchscreen. I haven't checked that out yet, thus I have not explored the full potential power of it.

The ABC button switches out the number pad to a keyboard and moves the top of the phone to the side so that you would have a wide screen over your keyboard (which also spans vertically) in a second, and renames the button as a "123" button. Logically, pressing the 123 button will bring you back to the number pad. This feature, I must say, is cooler than those flippy phones that you have to flip it around to access the number pad or keyboard.

And of course there is the camera mode (activated by the camera button), where a camera lens protrudes out of the touchscreen and you use the LED screen to view the picture you are taking. To snap a photo, you would press the camera button. To zoom in and out, you would use the numbers as references – five being the normal view. Four and down is zooming out, and six and up is zooming in.

That would be all I have learned about my new iLuigi so far. I was flipping to the next section about the Scanning/Download feature, when I noticed Kirby was walking towards me, with Jigglypuff following behind. I held the book higher to my face, peering over the top, wanting them to not know I was watching. Jigglypuff ran up, and tapped Kirby on his arm.

"Hey," she said, turning slightly red. Kirby turned around, frowning slightly, raising a nonexistent eyebrow.

"Yeah, what?" he asked not exactly impressed with the sight of her with a red carmine flower pinned in her tuft. Jigglypuff turned redder, and I had a feeling what she was thinking. I tried not to snicker as well as trying not to burst out into outrageous cackles at the same time, and waited to see what happened next.

"Um... Kirby?" Jigglypuff pointed to something above the two. I looked to see what it was, and delightfully discovered it was mistletoe. Oh goodness, Kirby, you're in quite a heap of trouble. Kirby looked up as well, still very unimpressed.

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked bluntly. Jigglypuff shyly rocked back and forth on her feet, turning a deep shad of red that I have never seen on her face before.

"You're supposed to kiss me," she said. And I wished I had a camera to take a picture of Kirby's face right then and there – but wait, I do have a camera! I pulled out my iLuigi and pressed the shiny camera button, and the camera lens materialized on the front of the touch screen. Kirby then let out a scream, something I have never heard before, and never want to again. It nearly split my head in two, as I winced and focused on the running image of him, his eyes white with tiny pupils, and looking rather pale and frightened. _That_ is hilarious! Poor Kirby, though – he has to be freaked out like that. To be suddenly asked to kiss Jigglypuff is probably one of the worst possible situations I could ever think of. Urgh – that sends shivers of displeasure up my spine! Kirby ran past me, arms waving hysterically, eyes wide, his mouth wide open in ear-splitting screaming fear. It's just too bad for him I already snapped a good, clear photo of him. I also got a snapshot of Jigglypuff running after him, her face beet red, eyes shining with tears of disbelief. It was all too funny to watch, the whole situation.

But since I was under a pact that promised to help my friends in times of need, I decided to intervene, to let Kirby have some quiet time to catch his breath and the reality of it all to sink in. He's probably going to get SO sick of it that he'll begin to start barfing; that poor guy had enough. So, I hopped out of my chair, neatly leaving the manual where my butt used to be. I skipped around a bit to catch up to Jigglypuff (who was surprisingly persistent in running) before standing akimbo style, hands on hips, trying my best to look serious and almighty. Jigglypuff had slowed down a bit to catch her breath, her panting heard from where I stood.

"HEY!" I barked sharply, and the pink dumbbell turned around. Immediately, there was green fire in her eyes.

"You..." she hissed in a voice that was actually a little creepy. She walked right up to me and tilted herself to look at me in the eyes, anger evident in her expression. Despite this ferocity, she can't exactly scare someone very well. I leaned over, my dark eyes glaring.

"Leave Kirby alone," I said calmly, narrowing my eyes into slits, "he's not _interested_." Jigglypuff looked a little surprised at first, but then her face hardened again.

"Eavesdropping, Pikachu? Tut, tut," she tutted, closing her eyes and facing away from me, "or are you just jealous?"

"Jealous?" I exclaimed, "Of what?" Honestly, peoples, what in the world is she talking about?

"The reason you hang around Kirby so much is because you LIKE him," Jigglypuff spoke that right in my face. I pushed her back, disgusted with her ignorance of personal space. And the fact that I'm in love with Kirby? Only when Wario stops farting!

"Obviously you can't tell we're best friends," I spat back at her, "because you don't have any yourself!" Jigglypuff jumped back, giving me a preppy "UH!" face. She was about to make a comment, but I was on a roll. I got right in her face.

"The only person here who is jealous is you!" I said, "I know you wish you could have some romantic evening with Kirby, but that's not gonna happen in four point six billion years! He doesn't like you because you're so mean to Yoshi, and because you are just plain annoying!" Jigglypuff opened and closed her mouth in shock.

"So just leave him alone," I concluded my rant, "comprende?!" She narrowed her eyes, her fists clenched.

"I'm telling Peach you said that," she threatened. I shrugged.

"Why would I care?" I said, "She's too busy chasing Mario with her umbrella." Which was true. Whenever Mario and/or Luigi get on her nerves, she would chase them around the Castle in the Air, swinging her umbrella violently and spouting off a mouthful of "lovely" words. And as if we had planned it, Mario came running down the hallway with a rampaging Peach hot on his heels.

"Excuse-a me!" he said, running past us, holding his red hat tight to his head. I stepped aside to let Peach through, avoiding the swinging range of her weapon. I watched them pass round the corner calmly, and then looked back at Jigglypuff's infuriated face.

"Told 'ya so," I said. Jigglypuff suddenly screamed and flung herself at me, her stubby arms flailing. I stepped aside, allowing her to plant her face into the floor, and walked off before she could do anything else, taking my manual and phone with me.

I later found Kirby slumped next to the bathroom door, looking rather pale. Yoshi held out a cookie to him. He took it, holding it in his hand, but not eating. I know what he was thinking about.

"Hey buddy," I greeted my fretful pink friend, "you okay?" Kirby gave a small nod, and popped the sugar cookie into his mouth, remaining silent all the while. He blinked hard, and then suddenly took out a mirror from behind his back. It was a small, hand-held mirror, framed with braids of gold and inlaid with rubies and garnets. Being a creation from Mario, it couldn't be just an ordinary mirror. The mirror allowed you to look around in the various rooms (and what is going on involving which people) of the Castle depending on the angle of the mirror. At the moment, he was turning the mirror back and forth in front of his face, and pops that into his mouth. He stands up, walking away, leaving us standing there quietly. I had a feeling that I knew what Kirby was up to.

The pink puffball returned with a camouflage helmet (like the army ones) and a rifle with a golden star engraved at the butt of the gun.

"The hunt's afoot!" He exclaimed happily, seeming to forget the earlier incident.

***

I was watching Kirby hunker down as low as he possibly could behind a pair of Christmas tree sin the corner. He had binoculars out, and was honing in on his prey. Despite his roundness, he was very good at sneaking up from behind and snatching his kill. He claimed to be an expert hunter, but I would say otherwise. So, I merely followed Kirby's movements as he moved toward his prey, sneaking along with the cover of furniture and foliage. By now, after rolling from hiding space to hiding space, periodically checking the area with his binoculars, he was very close to his goal.

His target? A plate of cookies – that's it. Cookie hunts were always fun, a little game he made up several Christmas-es ago and now we couldn't just give it up. We found that we became very attached to this certain sport, so now by tradition, we hold cookie hunts every Christmas, going on pretend missions. This time, I was supposed to be the lookout guard, watching the hunter to see if he was "in danger". Yoshi was in charge of eating the majority of the cookies this round. Soon, our positions would switch and the whole process would happen again. It's just too bad that there is no other groups playing with us – then it would be a _lot_ funner.

We played cookie hunt up until dinner time, where we were treated with a big Christmas feast that stuffed us to our brims – minus Kirby's, that is. After that, we quietly went about our business before turning in early for bed. Believe it or not, Christmas is not the most festive party of the year. It is the party after it – New Year's Eve. The whole Castle crew would have to work to prepare for it, as in hard manual labor. So that is why we sleep in early.

I was nestled against my pillows later that night, thinking about the years that passed. In the times when I am not playing in some antic, or talking, I reflect back on how my life has been so far, and wondering what will happen in the future. This night, I began to think long and hard about my future. When I get older, what would happen to me? I guess I would lead a semi-normal life, giving the fact the world has issues with me and what I am. What would it be like to be a grown-up? Come to think of it, I don't want to grow-up – you would then get old and have kids and have to share your bed with another guy. I don't see why anyone would want to be a grown-up, but I guess that's how life rolls. I scratched my ear, thinking as I combed my two hands on my relieved ear. I just hope life can go as smoothly as possible, with plenty of adventures before adulthood.

Satisfied with this answer, I sunk down on my new pillows, nuzzling my face into the beanie bag. I have to get some rest – there's going to be a party to prepare for, so what's with bothering the future? I put the matter aside and slowly drifted asleep.

* * *

**Oh Pikachu, only if you knew what's coming to you...**

**... I am terribly sorry for the long wait - I had multiple brain farts and school duties to attend to, but since school is over, I won't have anymore projects. YIPEE!!!!!**

**So Yay or Nay? Rate and Review Please!  
**


	21. The Castle's Most Dangerous Job

**The Castle's Most Dangerous Job**

I have heard about snow crab fishing in Alaska, and I know the dangers. I know about constructions sites, too. I know about nuclear power plants, I know mines, and I know perhaps most other dangerous jobs out there. Today, I am working – and it's probably the utmost dangerous job next to fighting wars. I am just glad that I'm not fighting in any wars, so I should be fortunate that I am working here than on the battlefield.

But I am not too fond of this job, either. Giant pieces of metal elements in stones the size and weight of five elephants rolling over your toes is not fun. And I can't imagine what it must feel like to have that colossal hunk of rock roll over my entire body. Oh yeah – I would be squished dead like a bug on the windshield.

Now you're probably thinking, "Now hold on a minute, Pikachu – giant rocks? What's with the giant rocks? Are you like Indiana Jones or something?". Yes, there are giant rocks in this job, but it's the rocks and not the treasure that makes it up. I know it may seem weird, but these are the ingredients that are needed to make the most spectacular display of fireworks all across the universe: Mario bros.'s New Year Night Lights. It is much more than just a bang of cheap fireworks that one could find in the superstore. It surpasses the professional ones lighted in national and international ceremonies by light years. The brothers make fireworks much more than bursts of colors – they make them dazzle and sparkle, dancing literally in thousands of brilliant colors. They burst into breath-taking displays of actual figures – not just simple circles and other geometric shapes. The fireworks rocket sky high above the Castle, exploding into 3-D flora and fauna, scenes and landscapes in concentrated bursts of light, all with suiting color. These fireworks move across the wide, dark sky with startling reality. It is beyond anyone could believe down on Earth that lay below the Castle (apart from movies and computer graphics), but this is the Super Mario Bros we are talking about! Nothing is beyond them.

But back to what I was saying earlier – this beauty is created from the deadliest work task. I have mentioned the danger of ginormous rocks rolling you over already, but that's not even half of the danger. To grind these massive boulders into powders so that they could be used for explosive chemical reactions – and to crush something so huge into the finest powder means Mill-time. If you could recall, you would know that the Mill is the rolling table built to the bottom of the Castle in the Air. And if you get rolled, you are guaranteed to become nice sheets of gum wrapper. If that's not enough for you, all of the crushing operations are done outside of the Castle – from the top of the Castle where Mario and Luigi smooths jagged chunks of pure metallic elements into spheres. Then, we have to roll them down to the Mill where they could be ground to tiny bits.

And how exactly do we roll those tons of raw elements down?At this time of year, there is a rickety ramp made of splintering wood that wraps around the great Castle like a thin snake shedding, supported by creaking beams that groans as the wind ravaged around it. And guess what? We have to roll those darned rocks right on it, hanging over thousands of feet of air, slowly so they won't fly right off of the ramp. So, with strenuous effort and labor, the KPY slowly rolled tons of spheres, fighting against gravity. But we've been doing this for years now, so I developed some muscles for the job.

Out of all three of us, Yoshi had the easiest time. With his impossibly strong strength (perhaps from hyperactivity), he would lift a sphere over his head and run down the ramp with it, higgling like a maniac. If not that, he would lick it up, swallow it whole so that the rock sat snug in his tummy, and Yoshi would just roll himself down. If not that, Yoshi sat on the sidelines munching on a berry tart grinning happily as he watched Kirby and I press our backs against the great boulder, inching down the ramp.

At a certain point, I asked Kirby if he could suck up all the boulders and walk down the ramp. Unfortunately for us, he said he could if he had a sufficient tongue. Kirby's tongue is tiny beyond belief, unlike Yoshi's. When it comes time to unload the boulders down onto the Mill table, the green dinosaur would bring it forth with his dexterous, super-strong pink tongue and carefully place the slobbered sphere in place. Since Kirby lacks such tongue, all he could to is canon-shoot the sphere with terrible accuracy. With the danger of loosing a great ball of elements that would wreck havoc upon the forest below, or squish a poor and innocent rodent (like me), we didn't DARE try it.

Whoever worked on the Mill Table brushing off the fine powders into burlap sacks had to be fast and agile with reactions of lightning.

That person would be Sheik – also known as the tomboy version of Zelda. At home, Zelda would transform from her oh-so-gorgeous (flicks hand in mock, preppy manner) princess self into the super cool assassin of DOOM. She has a really cool assassin suit when she feels like wearing one, but on casual occasions, she puts on a sweater and some torn up jeans – most likely worn out from climbing trees – and a random cap. Sometimes it's the cap that Mario had given her for Christmas, or the one Luigi gave to her for her birthday.

But no matter what sort of, mix-matched jumble of modest clothes she wore, Sheik always wore her weathered bandages that covered her face in loose wrappings, and her lower arms with a tight bound. Taking a break from a recent delivery of minerals, I examined her. Today, she wore her Mario cap on top of her gleaming, blond hair, her bangs brushing across her hair in careless strands, veiling her dark, crimson eyes from view. The bluish-gray turtleneck sweater that she adorned on this particular day was bare on the front, save for a peculiar symbol of an eye with a teardrop hanging heavily beneath it knitted on the space over Sheik's heart. She liked wearing that sweater, and wore it often – she even wore it to school in her Zelda form.

And I've never asked why she favored it. Now, that lack of inquisition is bothering me tremendously.

"Why do you like that sweater so much, Sheik?" When Zelda was in Sheik form, she liked being called Sheik, for the namesake. Besides, she said it sounded cool, and I respect her liking for the name. The blond teen lifted her head, reminding me very much of a panther with feline grace.

"You mean the one I'm wearing right now?" she asked, her voice deeper than Zelda's gentle tone. I bobbed my head up and down.

"Uh huh," I confirmed, "Why do you like it so much?" Sheik, who had been piling up sacks of copper dust, stopped what she was doing, straightening her slim figure to look down at her beloved sweater. For a few more seconds, she stared at the garment, wondering what to say.

"It's soft and warm... I guess," she finally said, "and it's from a family friend." Family friend?

"You mean like Mario and Luigi?" Which was true, for they are indeed family friends to Zelda's family before her parent's died, and they still are. But to my surprise, Sheik shook her head, her straw-blond hair swaying in motion as she closed her cat-like eyes. So, it became apparent to me that she had another family friend somewhere out in the universe.

"Who, then?" I persisted, impatient. Sheik opened one of her crimson eyes, her expression calm without feeling, although I thought I saw the vague tilt of her eyebrow. She was hiding something beneath that darned mask again. She held a delicate, bandaged hand to her forehead, her fingers touching lightly on her skin as she thought.

"She lives by herself, and she is a person sort of like me at the moment," Sheik began, her low tone wavering a bit, "Impa... She's... Well, it's a little too complicated for me to explain who she is, how I know her, and such." Now, Sheik's fingers moved down to where her chin was supposed to be, playing with a loose piece of bandage absentmindedly. Impa? The name intrigued me – what kind of place was this person from? Then again, "Sheik" and, "Zelda" were funny names as well. And so was, "Pikachu" - so why should I worry about this silly nonsense? It was time to move on – with a new question.

"Why do you always wear bandages around your mouth, Sheik?" I piped up, skipping around her, waiting for Kirby's signal to hike back up the ramp again to take down another sphere, "Doesn't it get stuffy and hot?" Even though it was very hard to tell if she was smiling, due to the mask, you could tell right then Sheik was grinning.

"No," she replied, chuckling, "you'd be surprised how breathable this cloth is." I still didn't believe her for myself.

"You got to be joking me," I said flatly, looking at the bandages from the corner of my eye as I faced towards the open air. Sheik brushed hauled yet another sack into the pile, before saying,

"Nope – I am not," Raising an eyebrow, I eyed her mask for a while. And, with the time I had left before I dragged my sorry behind up the ramp, I ran back inside to fetch materials to make my own mask. I wanted to test this hypothesis for myself, and I did so.

However, it wasn't working out very well. As I thought, it soon got hot and stuffy underneath my little cover of suffocation – and to my dismay, smelly. I couldn't find any bandages, so I pinned up some old socks around my head (because, you know, Sheik's bandages look as though they were used more than once). That turned out to be a big mistake, and I was paying dearly for it. I gagged, stumbling out the door towards a bemused Sheik.

"How can you breathe?!" I cried, choking on the smelly fumes. Sheik eyed the old, gym socks. Now that I figured, these socks probably haven't been washed for quite some time. Ew...

"Hey Pikachu, let's ge – whoa, what the heck?!" Kirby exclaimed, reaching our presence. He stomped over and in a jerky motion, Kirby yanked off some of the socks from my face. Fresh, sweet air rushed into my nostrils and filled my lungs in joyful bliss. That's going to be the last time I try to imitate Sheik.

"What were you doing with these?" Kirby said, holding up the socks, his mouth pinched in obvious disgust. I took deep, cleansing breaths, some of the socks falling from its misshaped wrap. I let them fall.

"I wanted to see what it was like to wear a mask like Sheik," I answered innocently, pointing at the girl behind him. Kirby glanced back at her briefly, before shaking his head, dropping the socks.

"Stop wasting time, Pikachu," he scolded, "now, let's get up that ramp – the sooner we get this job done, the sooner we get to eat." I rolled my eyes, as we made our way towards the rickety, wooden ramp.

"You're always thinking about your stomach, aren't you?" I sighed, exasperated. Kirby paid no mind – instead he stopped short in front of the ramp, staring at something ahead of him with a wide-eyed expression. What's wrong with him? Concerned, I waved one of my hands in front of his face. Kirby blinked, his expression annoyed.

"What's the matter, Kirbs?" I asked, honestly not knowing what's wrong.

"Your mom gave you a pair of eyes," he huffed, gesturing towards the ramp with a stubby arm, "use them, for goodness sake!" When he soon returned his attention back to the ramp, I stuck out my tongue at him. Then I decided to look for myself.

Some ways up, a section of the ramp had been splintered and broken through, leaving a yawning whole wide enough for a sphere to pass through. The planks were shattered and torn badly, and the structure underneath was shaking badly.

From above, the sounds of the wood creaking were mixed with a WHOOSH as something large fell. Following the sound waves, I glanced up. In the ramps above, there were holes as well, all aligned with each other – and something round was rocketing down through them.

"Oh dear..." Kirby muttered, "There goes another sphere," Meanwhile, something in my blood buzzed in the presence of metal – the electricity in me does that. Quick as lightning, I instinctively concentrated my mind upon the great mass of metal as it zoomed down, and the static electricity in the air snapped into a connection between me and the conductor. My electricity flowed from my cheeks and hands, zipping towards the sphere. With my mind, I stopped the conductor from falling to earth, using my electricity to coax the heavy piece of metal to the landing above the Mill Table. When it was position just right, I lowered the sphere daintily, releasing my bonds of electricity carefully. Without a sound, the sphere made it down, safely. Staring at the sphere, just only making sense of what I just done, I realized I have quite a bit of power; I had easy control over ALL conductors of electricity. That means all forms of metal and water – the earth, the oceans, and even other people through the liquid that runs in their veins. Sure, anyone wished that they could have so much control and glory, but being a five year old... That was too much power – it frightened me. I turned around to see Kirby observing me with his keen, star-blue eyes. What could he be thinking?

My thoughts were halted when I heard another whooshing sound – my ears pricked up. It was not quite as large as a sphere, nor as round (judging by the sound of the air moving around the object). I had a hunch I knew who it was.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The squeal confirmed my very thoughts, as we saw a green blur of a dinosaur rush down towards the Earth. Spending many years with Yoshi, I got to know him very well, well enough to know that situations like this were not as worrying as to say he jumped into lava. Sure, it's scary to fall from a castle that floats miles above the ground, but not for Yoshi – by golly, he lived here for all his life so far. This must have happened at least a dozen or so times before we ever met him.

As expected, Yoshi did come back up – but he had different ways of doing so (one time, he climbed a rope ladder from the ground). Today, as the dinosaur rose up to meet at our eye level again, his cheeks bulging with a round object. Before he rose any higher, we reeled in our friend, so that he could spit out the balloon in his mouth and be safe on the platform. And out did the balloon come (with a rather gigantic burp), looking very much more like a bubble than an inflatable. Watching the bubble float higher into the sky, its iridescent colors shining, it brought back an old feeling of curiosity and wonder. In my mind, someone laughed, as I try to catch my prey.

Who was he?

***

New Year's Eve began with a huge mess, as in food fight mess. This year's was probably the biggest yet, and most participated. Even Jigglypuff fought back (only to be creamed by yours truly), and Fox and Donkey Kong even dropped by for it! For a food fight, the battle was epic beyond compare – no planned food fight at school could ever stand tall. We have less people than a cafeteria filled with kids, no doubt, but we have a LOT of food. And we have the skills, too (no offense to those food-fighters out there). I mean, c'mon – all of the people gathered around the table had some kind of brawling technique (mine was launching pies off of my tail in lacrosse) that invigorated the ambiance of the room.

Mario and Luigi, with a wave of their gloved hands, was magically clean and in fresh clothes (with no trace of the cheese wraps that Peach chucked at them), they headed out to Gardens in the Sky. That's where we go outside to see the fireworks, sprawled out on Luigi's soft, green grass, surrounded by clipped bushes, ornamental trees, and blooming flowers of many different colors. He had quite the green thumb, and his part of the Gardens grew magnificently.

The other part – Peach's garden – was smoked black. As I saw Peach yelling at her older brother in absolute disgust, blaming him for exploding her flowers with a firecracker, Mario scratched his head, examining the mess. I sighed, shaking my head – there was always some accident of some kind.

I had sprawled myself onto the lawn, feeling tendrils of cool greens tickle my ears. Above us, away from light pollution from the cities, was the great yonder of space that yawned from horizon to horizon, splayed with billions and gazillions of stars that lit the Gardens with a pale, blue-silvery white glow. Excitement from the food fight was calming down, and lulled to contempt. Beside me, Yoshi curled up into a neat ball fast asleep, murmuring peacefully.

Kirby still has some ways to go before he could calm down – he has to do his grand opening for the New Year Night Lights.

As the minutes ticked down towards midnight, I observed my surroundings. Yoshi was still asleep in the grass, his dinosaur body still looking very sweet like the baby he was. Some ways off to the right of me was Mario's siblings and himself, arguing over Peach's Garden. Luigi was yelling at Mario to help light the fireworks. Peach was yelling at Mario as well, but to apologize for wrecking her precious flowers. Mario was retorting that it had been an accident. Even quiet and shy Samus was yelling at her older siblings to shut up, her blond ponytail swinging as she shook. It must have been interesting to see them grow up, I mused.

This year, Luigi had thought it would be a great idea to shoot up a New Year Ball-o'-Firecrackers, "Kinda like the one they-a have at New-a York," he had said. Except a crystalline ball did not descend down a lighted pillar as the seconds counted down to the new year. No – we had a _cannon_.

It was getting awfully close to midnight – we only had a few minutes left. Samus took out a laser gun-type thing from the back pocket of her jeans and shot Peach's swinging umbrella, lighting it on fire. As Peach turned her rage upon her younger sister, Mario dashed to the great cannon with several boxes of matches, tossing Luigi some as the green brother raced to align the other rockets. Kirby, holding a great, golden banner, waited patiently for his cue. Looking at my pink friend, I felt a little envious that he got to do something, and pouted. Oh well; life never comes out the way you want it to be, I thought, remembering a vague memory of a mother that never wanted me.

"TA-WENTY SECOND COUNT-A-DOWN STARTS-A NOW!" On cue to Mario's announcement, Luigi lit two fuses, which immediately rocketed up as the figure "20" is bold, bright, yellow letters. That died away in a shimmer of gold, replaced with 19, then 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11...

At 10, Mario had lit the fuse to the great cannon. Within a millisecond, a ginormous ball zoomed through the zero in the ten – up and away.

9: I was awed by how extreme the firepower was to build such thrust to shoot a heavy piece of explosive so high in the air.

8: I didn't see the ball.

7: I started to worry. Where was it?

6: What if it doesn't come back down, where we could see it.

5: I saw the ball again, and it was coming down fast.

4: Whew, at least I know we were going to see it now.

3: Wait a moment, is that ball coming down too fast?

2: Now I am a little concerned – we're going to be blown to bits!

1: Good by, cruel world!!!

Then, right on mark, as the clock struck the hour of the new minute, new hour, new day, new year, the great explosive burst into a brilliant super nova, close enough that we felt the heat of the blast in our faces. The burst shrank back slightly, so our eyes could adjust to see bright, white figures pouring out from all directions from the explosion. I squinted my eyes, amazed; thousands upon thousands of birds flew out, created by light, their wings spread and rushing out like an avian fountain. Feathers showered down, illuminated by their own chemical composition, dazzling everyone who saw. Floating down, they died out before they could light the grass on fire (or any other firecrackers).

The birds had gathered themselves, flapping together in a massive formation. On the ground, watching the birds pass by, Mario lit another rocket. Once airborne, the capsule fell away from a sheet of crystal, in which the birds passed through. What happened next took our breath away; the birds, once plumaged with with-light, melted into the biggest rainbow ever seen on earth, more dazzling than the aurora lights, before transforming into billions of tiny butterflies. These winged delicates flitted high, each tiny pair of wings a color from the rainbow, each glowing brightly.

Suddenly, the swarm parted itself into a donut like shape as a zooming object passed through, a long, golden banner streaming behind.

It was Kirby. As he flew out and about through the sky, the bright butterflies bore light to the banner, revealing the embroidered message upon it.

**HAPPY NEW YEAR**

As if it wasn't flashy enough, the warpstar Kirby rode on had a streamer of tiny stars trailing after it. So out he flew, bearing the New Year banner. As the butterflies danced in the air, creating fantastic formations, Kirby wound around them, twisting and whirling the strip of gold.

And then came Kirby's big act – the part that changed my mind about wanting to have his role in the New Year Night Lights. In mid-transfiguration, the butterflies simply exploded. The Gardens were illuminated with the bright light the star burst gave off, causing some to shield their eyes. At first, the burst brought nothing but a thick, white cloud, uneventful in comparison to what had happened before.

Until a second later.

A giant jet of flame tore through the wisp, burning a hole in it. What remained of the cloud was wafted away by a powerful set of luminescent wings.

Dragon wings, to be exact – made of fireworks. A wyvern, as bright and as vividly colored as its fire. With its eyes of glowing ember swiveling around, the beast raised its dignified head, looking for prey.

And, as always, Kirby played matador – except instead of a bull, its a massive, blinding dragon. And all he had was his golden banner and warpstar.

Well, it wasn't exactly matador – you could call it a wild goose chase, instead. But it was the most beautiful goose chase I have ever seen. As Kirby maneuvered and dodged the columns of fire that burst forth from wide open jaws, Mario and Luigi sent many more bottle rockets that wound around the predator-and-prey's path, the light exploding in novas, taking shape of wispy, purple, green, and blue hued nebulae that twinkled with tiny, glowing specks of mimic newborn stars.

Through the spacial clouds the dragon chased the pink pilot in a magnificent show, for both elements of the chase made many intricate movements, both dazzling us with their agility and skill (dragon's movements had been programmed by Mario). Soon enough, the tiny, mimic newborn stars start to revolve, sucking away the wisps and expand in size. Now, they were full fledged stars, some standard yellow, some acid green, and some lightning blue. Solar flares lurched from them, twisting around Kirby and the dragon.

Over the time span of fifteen minutes, we watched the duo perform. Somehow, we never get tired of it, the dragon chasing Kirby. The settings always changed from year to year, and the shape and color of the dragon changes in the same respect. Even the movements change annually – Mario and Luigi certainly new how to keep their guests entertained, being festive folk.

The stars grew larger in size, and grew redder and redder, swelling up into red giants, so large that even the great, massive wyvern disappeared when it flew behind one. Scarlet glowed all over the Gardens, the shadows flickering furiously as the fire overhead casted light in many different directions.

At one point came the cataclysmic apocalypse to the reign of the stars. Within seconds of each other, the stars one by one collapsed, the implosions setting off a chain reaction, in which all of the stars collapsed violently to create great star bursts that shook the Castle, and nearly blinded us with the intensity of the light. As stars fell in upon themselves, one after the other, becoming super novas, Kirby raced skyward at an alarming speed, to escape. The dragon followed in pursuit, but perhaps a little too late. The super novas engulfed the great beast, slicing the air around them with vibrations that rattled my teeth.

The light was sucked into a tiny, condensed, ball of light. Then, it exploded, like a great flaming star before dissolving into embers. Raining down to the ground, the glowing specks simply died out, causing no harm to any flora or fauna. The audience simply stared, made dumbstruck by the splendor of the performance.

It was only when Kirby came flying in on his warpstar, shaken and exhausted, when we broke out into applause. Hopping off of his golden steed, Kirby merely nodded his thanks, and plopped down next to me. His tired, star-blue eyes caught mine, and I grinned at him. To perform that certain part of the show, you must _very _good at piloting and have the guts to do it. Kirby, obviously, had both. It must have been scary, to have something that looked so real and scary chasing you.

"You pooped out, chum?" I asked my pink fellow. Without a word, Kirby just fell over on his back. That's all I needed.

As lights danced all about me, I began to think about this year. There would be end-of-the-year exams to take at school, then summer break. There would be the iLuigi to investigate, and then Jigglypuff's face to vandalize. There were new and old events I could expect for this year; some good, some bad, and some are just ugly to think about. Ah well, there will always be the KPY, no matter. Smiling to myself, flanked by my two best buddies, I eased my mind through the gate of the New Year.

* * *

**I am TERRIBLY sorry about the long wait, and even more sorry for the crap I give now. Right now, I am putting myself under a lot of pressure and work (I must get something done with this story, and then a comic on dA, and then the prizes for a contest)!**

**I hope you all are well, and I hope you guys don't come and nail my feet to the floor, or duct tape me to the ceiling fan. **

**And I thank you guys who have still hung on to my pathetic story with my pathetically slow updates. It's a light at the end of the tunnel, for me. So, thanks. ^^  
**


	22. A New Meaning

**A New Meaning**

Now who wants to hear tens of thousands of more chapters about studious students working... Well, studiously? Do I hear a voice? Nah, forget it. Even with my crazy life and bizarre friends (I mean that in a good way), school managed to remain dull and rather uneventful. So, I present you the rest of the school year in a nutshell, and then we can put this away and move on to the _really_ fun stuff – ooooh!

The day before we went back to school from winter break was a really strange one. Do you remember the other family friend that Zelda was talking about from way back when? Well, this "Impa" came by that day, taking the WHOLE walk up to the Castle in the Air on the Cloud Path.

Now, you're like, "Wai-wait a second, Pikachu – what's this 'Cloud Path'? You've never said _anything_ about this shenanigan." And you're perfectly right – I haven't said anything about the Cloud Path, so I apologize for the inconvenience.

The Cloud Path is exactly what the name says – a cloud path. The Cloud Path is a path of clouds that serves as a walkway (or driveway) that connects to the ground, and winds all the way up to the Castle. Considering the precarious height of the Castle, this lady must have been a super woman or something to be able to jog all the way up without dying from lack of oxygen (I would stick with something – it must be one of the Mario Bros. Wonders at work again).

To continue with the summary, Impa was at the Castle in the Air to talk to Zelda about "serious matters". I didn't know what they talked about, for eavesdropping is very rude, so I left them be. Besides, Impa looked like a super-lady no one would ever want to mess with – she has a strong, muscular build with ninja-like skills and piercing, hawk eyes. If I eavesdropped, I bet she would catch me, and then punt me across the room. Now, I don't know about you but I wouldn't like to be punted across a room, so understand that I cannot relay any information about their discussion – yet.

Impa left after a curt good bye. And so, the next day, began school.

Everyone was shocked to see Zelda – the last time they heard of her, she was proclaimed "dead", after a freak accident on a glacier. So, when Zelda walked into homeroom, all of the newly informed students' jaws dropped open. The teacher practically fell faint, right out of her chair.

News quickly spread about Zelda's dramatic return, so it soon became old chit chat. The teachers, after recovering from quite some shock, welcomed their student back. Business was back to normal, as we prepared for standardized tests and exams. All the classes – including D.O. Fenses – were pumping in juices and working for some kind of test. It's just too bad that Mr. C is not allowed to do any "extreme" exams ever again – that takes away the fun of testing.

However, we were training for an obstacle course. We don't know what it looks like, yet, but judging by the tasks we do, it looks a little challenging. Okay, fine! Maybe for you guys jumping a hundred hurdles that are four feet high while doing back flips consecutively isn't at all challenging, but remember I'm not on the tall end of the class. Next to Kirby, I'm the shortest. However, I must admit, it was probably the most invigorating of all "studying".

Other than taking multiple practice tests every single day, then reviewing them, and then taking yet another one, nothing really happened for several months. At one point in time, our geography teacher became critically ill. Her substitute for the time being, was a stickler, and loved to study by the test preparation booklet. It's great that she wants us all to do our best, but do we honestly have to learn how to sharpen a number two pencil for a day? I mean, c'mon, isn't that's what Kindergarten is all about? I bet I could just use my bare teeth and gnaw that darned thing to the "perfect" point. How boring can school get?

Close to standardized testing time, one of my classrooms had a power outage, leaving us in semi-darkness. It was kind of cool, and the overhead that displayed our test-taking tips for the day went KAPUT. So, we postponed the note-taking, and watched the janitor come in, talk to the teacher, and leave to operate.

Then came the testing time. Ugh, I couldn't imagine anything that hurt my butt as much as sitting in a chair for hours. Next, it would be the fat kid Jason kicking it – although that only happened ONCE. The dude didn't see where he was going as he waddled around on the bus. But everything was cool – I got to kick his butt the next day. Mostly, the school days went smoothly.

Well, disaster struck me one day – I had the need to use the bathroom desperately as we tested. The problem was, no one was allowed to walk in the hallways, even for the bathroom. So, I dealt with the excruciating pain until it was time for a fifteen minute break between sessions, in which I waddled to the best of my ability towards the restroom. The next day proved to be just as terrible – I had skipped a question to answer later, and lo and behold, I accidentally filled in the answer for the next question in the bubble where it was supposed to be skipped. I only realized this until I was done, and had to redo the whole bubbling from question six to forty. Testing was no fun. So, when it was over, I nearly jumped for joy, but then I realized I was in a classroom environment.

Only then I realized that school wasn't for people like me. I felt trapped. Rather stiffly, I plodded on through the rest of the curriculum with my body tensing up for the eagerness of summer. What a glorious day it would be to walk home and feel the opportunity to do anything for the next two months! Who knows what kind of adventures lay waiting for the KPY? So far, the only one with plans for the summertime bliss was Kirby, who kept them a secret. But I know he would tell me later.

The tiny buds on the bushes inside the school courtyard grew into dark, green leaves, which meant that end of the year exams were on the way. So came the new volley of tests with the familiar routine – except for the hurtles, and swinging logs from D.O. Fenses. I was pleased that I had passed the hurtles with high marks, and I dodged the swinging logs with complementary flying colors. Link and Zelda easily followed. However, no matter how skilled of a fighter he was, I was worried about Kirby's agility – how can a squat puffball do back flips consecutively over a hundred hurtles, much less dodge swinging logs that slice through the air from all different directions when he doesn't even look thin enough to do so? Surprisingly, Kirby did great – as usual. I suppose that made the high point of our exam week.

The last day of school was very emotional for Zelda, for some of her friends were moving away permanently – the poor girl wouldn't stop crying. For me, it was the dawn of a new series of adventures, so I patiently waited for the day to end. The test scores came in for both final exams and standardized tests. I did all right, considering I had some testing issues at first. Happily, I licked the icing off my cupcake (the teachers bought cupcakes).

And so, the school summary comes to a close with a final bus problem. Our bus broke down on our way out of the school zone, so we had to wait for another bus to come pick us up – no big deal.

Perhaps an hour passed when Captain Falcon came by to pick us up in his fancy-schmancy car, and drove us into the sunset. Well, our departure wasn't that amazing, but driving off into the sunset sounds cool enough.

Today, the first day of summer vacation, was the day Kirby decided to reveal his plans for the summer, as the KPY sat in a triangle on the floor of his bedroom. The pink puffball seemed rather excited about it, whatever it was. I, on the other hand, was feeling apprehensive – Kirby was the kind of guy who liked to play sports just as eagerly as discussing physics. Hopefully, his plans did not involve toying with a calculator.

Yoshi drummed his feet happily on the floor, his tongue lolling outside his mouth, eyes half-lidded from the drowsiness of his most recent nap. Yoshi would happily do anything that didn't involve violence or anything inappropriate, which made him a good person to be around with.

It so happened that Kirby had one of his new hats on – a hard hat, looking like the kind that construction workers wear on their heads. I gave a heavy sigh – I was not in the mood to play dress up, either. Usually, I would have loved to don myself in some outrageous toga or whatnot, but today I felt the thirst for adventure parching my throat. I wanted to do something that will rock my world, something important that involved the outdoors. There were many things to discover out there, I thought as I looked deep into the woods in the backyard. I quivered in anticipation, feeling as though the world was pulling me, urging me to do something grand. Glancing back at Kirby, I wondered if he felt that pull, too.

"Well," our pink friend began briskly, "we have about two months of opportunity ahead of us – we have plenty to do." I sure hope so. Yoshi hummed anxiously, not caring whether or not Kirby starts off our summer plans in a official way. But I think Kirby needs to cut to the chase.

"And I thought that maybe we could spend some time outside," Kirby continued, cautiously. I cocked my head to the side.

"Like what?" I asked. Kirby frowned, and I felt my stomach get sick – when Kirby is nervous about sharing his plans, it means that I might not agree with it. I gave a sigh.

"Like... Digging?" he replied, hesitating. My mouth dropped open.

"What for?" I cried out. Why on earth Kirby wants to dig in the dirt during the summer? Unless if it lead to some Elderado or Atlantis, then I didn't see the point in using my energy for something like that. At this point, Kirby regained some of his courage, and glared at me.

"For fossils," he snapped, "it's more interesting than you think, you know,"

"Oh puh-leez," I huffed indignantly, "digging for dead rocks is not my idea of summer vacation,"

"It is for me," Kirby replied haughtily. I folded my arms and scowled – sometimes, the puffball didn't make any sense. Glancing at Yoshi, I could see that he really didn't care, one way or another. In fact, he was asleep again. Kirby sighed, tapping his foot, calming down.

"Trust me on this one," he said, "when you look for fossils, you will have to go around town to looks for just one – and then, you have the challenge of finding a whole skeleton, or something like that." I stared blankly at him, not knowing what to say. I knew that fossils were only found in certain places, and dig-sites often lead to new and exotic places. And I knew a whole skeleton of some long-dead dinosaur was extremely hard to find, much less intact. It was a challenge, I acknowledge that, but it didn't quite thrill me. I hesitated, wondering what I should say.

Then, I found a subject that intrigued me; Yoshi is a dinosaur, and he and his species had thrived for millions of years, long before and after the dinosaurs we know existed. But why?

Mario says that the yoshis had stayed safe from all the dangers that threatened other lifeforms by retreating to a distant island, dubbed Yoshi's Island. Luigi says that they were part dragon as well as dinosaur, which allowed them to have super powers for survival. It may have been both, for there is indeed a Yoshi's Island, and Yoshi had already demonstrated super powers effective for survival. I thought, examining the sleeping, green dinosaur with deep interest.

I had no idea why I decided to agree with Kirby's fossil-digging plan, much less how the thought of Yoshi persuaded me to. But I had agreed, which was all that mattered. Pleased with my answer, Kirby turned to Yoshi for his agreement.

"What do you think, Yoshi?" he asked. A loud snore followed by light higgling answered.

"Wasn't he awake earlier?" Kirby turned to me, his nonexistent eyebrows raised. I shrugged.

"Yeah," I said, looking down on our green friend, "but he really doesn't care what we do, so let's just stick with a yes."

"Works for me," Kirby answered, nodding.

***

There are many, many things I don't understand about Kirby. For example, Kirby has the ability to ace every single test that the whole world throws at him without a brain. How can he do that if the only organ in his body is his stomach? Kirby is a small being, and yet he has a vast amount of space inside his stomach. How? Why? How can he hear without having any form of ear drum? To me, Kirby is an anomaly, an organism that defies biology and physics, and yet the dude thinks he's the average Joe.

Right now, I was thinking about another, contradicting fact about the pink puffball.

"Kirby?" I called out to him. Kirby had decided that instead of going to the exciting, large, grand-scale fossils first, we should start out small, as in looking for things like leaf imprints, and jellyfish. What fun.

"What?" Kirby asked without turning around. With a chisel and a brush, he was cleaning off yet another specimen of a strange looking, bug-like creature. I sighed, wondering why he liked to break rocks open and look for dead things; scratch that: he LOVED to.

"If you hate body parts and dead stuff, then why are you digging for fossils?" I asked, "Fossils are made up of bones and dead organisms, right?" It was true that Kirby didn't like bones, or organs. One time, he noticed that I had to gnaw on hard foods and wood, so that my continuously growing teeth, like other rodents, will not grow inward to the point where it pierces my brain. Then, he started to gloat that it was troublesome to have teeth, and that he didn't have to worry about it because he didn't have any. He didn't see why animals had to have bones. But, if we didn't, we might as well be squids and octopi, I had retorted.

Kirby still thinks of bones with measured disdain, which made me wonder why he liked to dig for really old ones.

"There is a difference between bones and fossils," Kirby said, turning around to face me as he explained, "Bones are still made of the gross stuff bones are made of. A fossil, however, have had minerals replace the organic material over time, thus creating a more, rock-like form of bone. It's not bone – it's rock. It's a cool rock, mind that." Finished, he turned around to return to his work, taking on the tedious chore of cleaning a fossil.

"I FOUND ANOTH-AH ONE, KUH-BEE!" I suddenly shrank back, my ear drums blown to bits by Yoshi's loud screech of delight, as he came running over to Kirby, his arms swinging wildly. Pleased, Kirby took the specimen from Yoshi once the dinosaur had finally calmed down, and set it aside so that he could clean it later.

Kirby had a favorite type of fossil he liked to look for – trilobite. It reminds me of a bug, and a horseshoe crab at the same time. Somehow, he found trilobites fascinating, while it bored the living daylights out of me. At least we got to go back to Canada through the Pipe System to look for them, as we dug around on the top of a mountain at a site called Burgess Shale. At least I could do a little sightseeing as I picked at the rock.

"Kirby," I said, absentmindedly hacking away at stone, "aren't you ever going to get tired of trilobites?" I heard him exhale sharply from somewhere behind me.

"No," he chuckled, "aren't they so cool?"

"Sure," I answered sarcastically, rolling my eyes. There was a small "tak!" as Kirby placed his chisel down on the rock. I tensed up, slightly – it sounded almost as if Kirby had forcefully put it down. I began to wonder if my sarcasm actually hurt him. Turning around, I sought out for a trace of frustration, pain, or even betrayal.

Instead, I found that Kirby looked _very_ amused. In fact, he looked like he was trying to hold in a laugh.

"What?" I asked, feeling slightly annoyed – somehow, there was always someone who found something funny before I did, leaving me confused and left out. I hate that feeling. Kirby grinned, and said,

"Okay Pikachu – you win this one," he laughed, "but can't you at least help me set up my collection? I actually have a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that we could put together." I snorted.

"So now I have to do some more of your crap," I replied bluntly, knowing that Kirby didn't care anymore, "You know perfectly well puzzles aren't my forte – you should get Yoshi to do it or something." And Yoshi would make a _perfect_ employee for those who needed a fossil skeleton rebuilt. Although it didn't seem like it with his frequent misunderstandings, Yoshi was an expert with brain teasers, puzzles, or anything that involved with a higher sense of logic. He may lack common sense at times, but that dinosaur has finished a four by four Rubix cube in two seconds flat.

But what would I do? And how in the world did Kirby ever find the time to dig out a t-rex? And how did I not even know of it?!

"Pikachu," Kirby said, with a tinge of regret in his voice, "just because we are best friends, that doesn't mean that we should do _everything_ together." I blinked, not believing a word he was saying. I thought best buds did EVERYTHING together – did Kirby become tired of the KPY? I scanned his star blue eyes, wondering – my friendship was so precious to me.

Kirby smiled empathetically.

"It's all right Pikachu," my pink friend assured me, "just get the KPY a head start on a new adventure – we'll be right behind you." I stared at Kirby for long time, his support and understanding of me sinking in slowly. He didn't want me to be unhappy doing what he wanted to do – something an actual best friend would do. It made me feel grateful.

It was then I honestly knew the KPY were best friends.

* * *

**The suckiest chapter known to mankind. I'm dreadfully sorry, my dear readers - I was having a hard time getting back to the feel of writing. It has been a while since I wrote in a creative sense.**

**My updates will now be scarce and random - I rarely have any spare time, now, due to the great and massive work load of the IB Programme. So, please forgive me.**


	23. Back to the Drawing Board

**Back to the Drawing Board**

"Yoshi, _please_ be careful with the skull!"

Musing, I watched Yoshi dance around with the extinct head of a tyrannosaurus rex as Kirby pleaded and begged him to act more maturely. As if _that's_ ever going to happen... My eyes flipped back to the yellow notepad I had before me, covered with scratches of graphite and crossed out words.

Currently, I was lounging on a smooth pedestal of cool, white marble, with a scary looking triceratops looming over my body. I was inside of Kirby's museum, or what he called "the place where I put my fossil collection". Being modest, he still doesn't want to think that he is spoiled with a huge building apart from the main house just for his fossils. I didn't care, honestly – although it was a working progress, the museum was actually turning into a nifty place where you can relax. It's like a lobby with a bunch of dead stuff around you; and it's MUCH more comforting than I'm making it sound. The floors and marble sculptures, pillars, staircases, and balconies are smoothed and polished so that they shone magnificently. The sunlight shone in through a sky light dome built at the top of the museum. There were real potted plants, lively and in all various shades of rich green, embedded into dioramas, vases, and fountains. Tropical trees stretch upwards towards the ceiling, making one feel as if they were in a jungle. Soon, as Kirby plans, there will be leather sofas and glass tables set up around the place, so we could just sit there and admire the handiwork, soothed by the pleasant sound of the indoor waterfall tumbling down.

Right now, there was a huge tank that was embedded into the ground of the floor of the main lobby, it's glass shining keenly in the natural light pouring through. However, it was empty – for now. Kirby wants to put some ceolacanth in there when the time comes – or whenever Mario or Luigi feels like fishing.

There are two floors to this building – the ground level, and the second level. The ground level is where the furniture and larger fossils will be, along with Mr. Fishy when he arrives, with the furniture in a little depression in the floor. The second level is basically made up of catwalks and balconies that wind around the tall fossils and trees, leaving a hole over the lounging area – or what we call "The Basin". The second level, like much of the building, is still under construction. Luckily, we have the ever-so skilled Super Mario Bros, and a strange, new unexpected employee.

He _hated_ dealing with other people, _especially_ annoying little kids. But Wario, believe it or not, is a skilled stone cutter. The fine sculptures and engravings were designed and carved by his hand and his hand only. All this time, I thought his lumbering self couldn't do much beyond yell so loud that the Castle turned upside down, fart, and make cheese – which he does in the Yellow Kitchen. Now, he may like garlic a _little_ too much, but he is a fine cheese maker. All the cheese that Mario and Luigi use in their cooking is made by _him._ And all of these beautiful pillars, sculptures, pedestals, and everything else that is made from stone was made by him. It was hard to believe that Wario had made them when Mario and Luigi shipped the marble to us the first time, and it is still hard to believe as the two came through the grand doorway with the museums latest editions just now.

"Hello, Yoshi!" said the Italian brothers in perfect synchronization, each one hefting a enormous pillar on their shoulder. I watched them pass on by, giving them a nod. Luigi returned my nod with the two-finger peace sign before continuing on to see Kirby.

"HI MAWEEO! WEEJEE!" Yoshi dangled from one of the cables that were holding up the ribcage to the tyrannosaurus with his long, pink tongue stretched out from his open mouth. Swinging the tyrannosaurus skull, the sticky, fleshy rope looped under the jawbone, and out through one of the eye-holes, Yoshi grinned happily, beaming at his caretakers. Kirby eyed the skull nervously.

"CAN ME-SUH HAVE BEH-WEE TAHT?!" The green dinosaur squealed, his tongue shaking the skull up and down as he spoke. I started to cringe – I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be pretty. I held up my yellow notepad, and picked up my pencil from beside me. Chewing thoughtfully on the wood (please excuse my rodent instincts), I glanced up and down the front sheet. It was supposed to be a list of ingenious and exciting things for me to do during the summer, but for the moment, it was made up of X'ed out activities. Every time I came up with something new, it would seem rather dull and boring a few minutes later – things like hot-wiring Captain Falcon's car and taking it for a spin, or scaling the Castle with our bare hands. Okay, maybe bungee-jumping from the Castle's roof is not boring, but we could do that anytime we wanted to just as long we don't zip by Wario's window. The problem was that I couldn't find any projects or long term activities to consume my summer – a _real_ adventure. I felt envious of Kirby, because he had his whole fossil collection to work with, even though the concept itself is kinda boring.

"YUMMY!" I looked up to see Yoshi flick his tongue back into his mouth, his arms outstretched to receive his delightful treat, causing the skull to fall towards the cold, hard ground.

I guess Yoshi made every concept not boring.

"Yoshi!" Kirby cried out, waving his stubby, pink arms frantically. I bent my head down, and waited for the telltale smash of long-dead bone to shatter on marble.

But, instead, I heard a SQUISH, and something hit the back of my notepad with a _splat!_

"Aww, come on!" I heard Kirby's voice groan, "It _had_ to land in the cake!" What cake? I lifted my head – and to my greatest amusement, I saw that the tyrannosaurus skull had buried it's nose deep into a massive, white frosted, shortcake with strawberries and whipped cream splattered all over and around it. I suppose Mario brought in the cake while I wasn't looking. It was supposed to be Kirby's "snack" and, of course, it had to be somewhere close to a cubic mile to mildly satisfy his hunger.

"Oh dear," Mario muttered, glancing at the mess.

"We shall clean it-a up right away!" Luigi declared, and the two rushed outside to fetch a mop and bucket.

"At least the skull didn't break!" I called out to my distressed friend. Kirby huffed, and examined the damage – but I knew he wasn't worried about the skull just yet. You see, Kirby values food, or else he would be famished ALL the time. And it turns out that his favorite food is strawberry shortcake, making this incident a sad, dismal misfortune for him. So, this would explain Kirby's fussing over the shortcake.

Speaking about fussing over shortcakes, this reminds me of the time when he told me that his shortcake was stolen from him by a bunch of rodents. He was SO pissed off that he chased them all over a planet and into another galaxy to get it back, only to face some evil being after beating the crap out of the leader rat. After that, he went back to Popstar, and got his cake back.

"Why on earth would you chase a piece of cake across a galaxy?" I blurted out loud. Kirby turned around, knowing full well that this random interjection was directed towards him.

"I like cake. Period." He answered flatly. I snorted.

"Isn't that like... stupid?" Kirby gave me a death glare, his blue eyes turning icy.

"No,"

"Did you really have to beat those guys up?" I asked. This time, Kirby seemed amused.

"They were a bunch of meanie-bohenies that deserved it," he simply explained, "besides, the Squeak Squad stole a WHOLE bunch of other stuff – if anything, I think they preferred to be beaten up rather than being terminated."

"Terminated?" I gasped – why on earth would a bunch of rodents would be terminated for stealing?

"Yep," he said matter-of-factly, "the Squeak Squad is _the_ most notorious and _the_ most wanted band of criminals in the ENTIRE universe – especially after they stole a priceless crystal chandelier from an old lady. That old lady loved that chandelier so much that she _died_ of a heart attack when she found it missing." I whistled, thinking about the poor, old lady – she needed to get a grip on herself.

"The Squeak Squad are charged with murder for that," Kirby continued, picking up a stray strawberry from the floor, and paused for a moment to examine the fruit before popping it into his mouth.

"Asides that, they stole over a billion dollars of priceless valuables, and who knows why." With that said, Kirby turned back around to look at his ruined cake. I began to wonder about this gang; they stole priceless valuables, like a crystal chandelier. Why, though?

"Did they steal from banks, too?" I asked him. Kirby glanced back at me.

"No," he answered, "which makes me confused. The only monetary value they have been collecting is worth in valuables, and it seems to be that they are keeping them instead of selling them on the black market."

"The whole thing is a mystery," Kirby finalized, "and no one has been able to catch them so far, and people say they will never be, which makes the Squeak Squad even more elusive." At this point, I was more than intrigued by the Squeak Squad – curiosity and the desire to understand all mysteries drowned me. My electricity fluctuated in my veins. I had to know what these guys were up to.

And I bet you twenty bucks it will take me more than searching them on Wikepedia to find my answer.

In fact, I was willing to go beyond that. In the air, I smelt adventure, a new mania, excitement! Finally, I knew what the KPY should do as the biggest project of the summer. I was up for the challenge, my sparking energy leaping brightly. With a grand flourish, I tore off the front piece of paper, and in scribbled in great letters smack-dab in the middle of the next page our new activity.

I am going to prove those people wrong. I am going to prove that it is NOT impossible to catch the Squeak Squad.

***

I had learned how to research in school, and so I took these researching skills and used them to find out as much as I could about the Squeak Squad.

There was a fat, blue rat called Storo, who reminded me of a pot-bellied pirate. Sources told me that he was the strength of the group, using his brute force (or weight) to smash stuff when stealing. He has been sighted in many thefts dealing with large, stone statues.

There was also a small, yellow mouse called Spinni. He had a pair of sharp, angular, and red sunglasses, and a matching cape. This little guy was basically the ninja of the Squeak Squad – he was speedy, and he chucked ninja stars (what ninja doesn't?). He was mainly involved in the thefts of smaller items, such as vases, jars, and fabulous jewelry, and has been sighted quite a few times, too.

Doc was this small, white mouse inside a UFO space craft, with a green bushy mustache and peculiar glasses. He looked the sort of person you would relate Einstein to, so I guessed he must be a genius. This guy kept his profile low – his sightings have been few and far in between. It has been supposed that he had been part of the thefts of large and fragile items, like chandeliers.

And we cannot forget the head honcho of the Squeak Squad – Daroach. Out of all four of the crew, he was seen the least. Daroach was the mastermind behind all of these crimes. According to Kirby, he has a beastly red hat and cape, with a bell on it. He carried a scepter that could shoot ice beams, and he carried a weapon called the Triple Star Hammer. He could whip out bombs that sends columns of fire rocketing sky high. He could teleport at sonic speed. Kirby said Daroach was quite a fighter – but not good enough to win.

There was a picture of Daroach on this website. I stared at it for a long time, thinking deeply – his golden eyes burned keenly. His smirk mirrored his cunning mind. He had HUGE ears, and a light, bluish-gray hue of fur. And his hat _was_ beastly – I liked it a lot.

There was something about that picture that made my stomach leap.

I finally tore my eyes away from the picture, deciding I had wasted enough time. I had business to do – and I had a treasure chest to make.

It wasn't long before I had gathered up all of the old Christmas ornaments that Mario and Luigi allowed me to have. Each breath-taking sphere was nestled safely in a bed of satin within separate glass boxes, and stacked in a neat, tidy pyramid beside me. Next was the jewelry – and this was going to be rather difficult.

"Are you insane?!" Kirby cried hysterically, shaking me, "Peach will MUTILATE you with her umbrella if she finds out you stole her jewelry!" I pushed him away, and smiled nervously. Yes, I knew the consequences, and I know that it would be excruciating. However, I was practically like a little thief myself, and a master escape artist like Houdini. Link won't believe me if I told him I had stole his diary (he calls it his "journal) thirty times already – but I did. I could pick locks like no one's business. Maybe I could get away with a necklace or something; besides, I am only borrowing it for temporary purposes so a short absence couldn't hurt.

"So?" I answered coolly, folding my arms. Kirby sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Whatever," he said, "who am I to keep you back? You would do it anyway even if I said no." Exactly. Kirby at least knew me well enough to know that fact.

"Wanna come?" I hope Kirby would accept my invitation – I don't want to get beaten up alone. My pink friend opened his mouth, about to say something, and then closed it, studying me, tapping the side of his face with a hand.

"I don't know, Pikachu," he finally said after a minute, "I have a lot of business to attend to."

"It's summer," I snorted, "what else do you have to do?" Kirby only shrugged.

"Dunno – building a museum is a hefty job," he replied slowly, rocking on his feet, "I have a new load of marble to deal with today." After considering his points, I nodded.

"Okay, then,"

"You could bring Yoshi – oh wait, that wouldn't work." Kirby exhaled sharply. It wasn't exactly the best idea to bring Yoshi along for my little escapade. Firstly, he wasn't the sneaky type – he would higgle and squeal every other minute and lumber after me. Secondly, once he sees Peach's sparkly jewelry, his little heart would crave for them. Then, there would be confrontation when Peach discovers ALL of her jewelry are missing, and would wreak havoc. So, basically, Yoshi could simply continue to aid Kirby in his construction.

"Wish me luck," I said, saluting to him before walking off. He nodded back.

After telling Samus I wanted to go to the Castle, I hopped into the green pipe that appeared in the middle of the living room floor and sped away to Italy. I reemerged, greeted by the welcoming smell of pasta and the bouncy voice of Luigi.

"Hello Pikachu! What-a brings you-a here?" I had hopped out from the pipe, which shrunk back into the floor.

"Just visiting," I waved nonchalantly, "and I forgot something here, so I am picking it up." It wasn't a lie – I forgot my bean-bag pillow Kirby gave me, and I wanted it back. Luigi scratched his head, his green cap tipping to the side.

"Oke-dokey," the Italian man said, and walked by – perhaps going to take another block of marble from Wario to Kirby back at Illinois. But I didn't bother to ask; I headed towards the direction of Peach's room, which was on the next floor. Instead of taking the stairs, I decided I had to make this operation quick – and this meant the Pipe System.

Which meant the toilet.

To use the toilet to travel, there was a code word that you have to speak to the toilet before you could flush yourself. The code word I had to use was "plastic-raspberry-shovel" - weird huh? But that exactly what I had to do. Grimacing, I settled myself into the toilet bowl, and placed a paw on the lever.

"Plastic-raspberry-shovel," I muttered, and pushed down. Unlike regular Pipe travel, toilet travel feels tight and uncomfortable. I squeezed my eyes shut to block out the water.

And _whoosh_, I popped out into another toilet bowl. Unfortunately for me, the lid was closed.

"OW!" I yelped, and then closed my mouth. I was on a covert mission, and I wasn't ready to fail it. Slowly and cautiously, I lifted the lid, peering around. The bathroom was pink – and the only pink bathroom in the entire Castle was Peach's. Good, I was in the right place. My pleasure was further propelled when I noticed that I couldn't smell anyone around, or hear anyone move. The coast was clear. I climbed out and landed on the fluffy, cotton candy pink carpet, and crept quietly towards the bathroom door that lead into the bedroom. If I am correct, Peach's jewelry was in a box on her dresser in that room.

The door was slightly ajar, and I peeked through the thin crack. The great, pink, bed was empty, and neatly made. The wardrobe in the corner was closed, and the dresser opposite the window was vacant. Perched atop it, as suspected, was a smaller replica that contained the accessories, judging by the smell of gold and silver.

On all fours, I scampered towards the dresser, my ears ready to give me the slightest warning of an approaching being. Reaching the dresser safely, I began to use the knobs to climb to the top. Up and up I went before I pulled myself onto the smooth and polished surface of oak, face to face to the jewelry box. I frowned – it was the biggest jewelry box I have _ever_ seen, probably filled to the brim with necklaces, rings, and bracelets all made of gold, silver, and precious stones. You would think just finding one would be easy – all I had to do was to grab and go. This is not the case – it turns out that the Squeak Squad are real choosy when it comes to stealing valuables. All reported items stolen have been all crafted masterpieces of three dimensional art, and all coincidentally made by the same artist – Aniram. He's the guy who signatures in the fancy, calligraphic 'A', the guy who made the Christmas ornaments. Apparently, the Squeak Squad have been particular in their taste of art, and certainly Aniram's was of high quality.

I pulled out a mini-drawer, and lo and behold was a mass of necklaces – some of them with bulbous, pearls, some of them encrusted with diamonds and rubies. There were sapphire and silver and gold and amethyst and any precious and semi-precious stone that ever existed. But, quickly turning over the necklaces with pendants (those were Aniram's specialty), I found none inscribed with the telltale 'A'. How could that be? If Peach was fond of valuable jewelry, why didn't she have many from Aniram? Oh wait – his work is very rare, which makes them more valuable.

I've got to keep hopeful – Peach had to at least have _something._ I pulled out the next drawer, which held a bunch of bracelets, bangles, and anklets. None at first glance looked anything like the braided metal or ivy wreaths Aniram welded.

So, saving time, I pulled open the next drawer. Rings.

And I couldn't possibly miss the great, red one in the middle of the pile. Gingerly, I picked it out from the cache, turning it over in my hand. The ruby had been cut into a sphere in such a clever way that it seemed to glow even in the dim light, bright crimson embers stirring lazily within. Laced around it was minuscule honeysuckle wreaths made of red gold, each tiny flower made of pure gold petals embedded with a tiny diamond. The ruby was held by a cavity of silver, used to reflect light into the stone. On the back of it, in a tiny, golden flourish, was the calligraphic 'A'. Mission accomplished.

I closed my hand around the ring, and pushed the drawers back into the jewelry box, before turning to leap down onto the floor. I was on my way to the bathroom when I heard footsteps. With the thought of a savage Peach pulling out her umbrella to clobber me, I scurried into the bathroom. I was ready to dive headfirst into the toilet when I thought about the ring – I didn't want that to touch toilet water. I thought about putting it into my mouth, but I might swallow it. Nervously thinking on my toes, I rummaged through the bathroom cabinets for a feather duster.

Just as I closed my fingers around one, I heard someone at the door.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Recognizing the sugary drawl, I growled.

"Just finished cleaning, Jigglypuff," I hissed back, pretending to be putting away the feather duster. I closed the cabinet door and brushed my empty hand on my stomach, the other closed behind my back. Jigglypuff eyed me with a certain suspicion.

"Since when were you a maid?" she scoffed, "Geez, are you doing some service hours for your school? That's so lame."

"Mind your own business," I said, scowling, and made my way to leave, but my nemesis stepped in front of the doorway.

"What do you have behind your back?" she said, noticing my clenched fist behind me. I pretended to be a little surprised.

"Oh this?" I held the fist up, "It's a knuckle sandwich," And then I slugged her in the face with it, before leaping over her and out the door. I could hear her scream and yell, but I kept running, not daring to look back. I zoomed down a fireman's pole, and dashed towards the nearest pipe that would take me back home.

"Pipe please!" I cried, and a green pipe emerged from the floor. Without thinking, I dove in.

I reappeared uncomfortably – for some odd reason, I popped up under someone's bed. Grumbling, I pulled myself towards towards the light.

Something made me stop short.

"Link?" it was Zelda. Apparently, Link and Zelda were in the same room.

"Hmm?" I saw the bottom part of Link sitting at his desk. So, they were ALONE in the same room – at least they thought so. What in the world was Link doing? And secondly, how come he sounds very relaxed? If anything, I thought he would be freaking out that he and his crush was in the same room ALONE.

"I didn't get to tell you this... But... But I have to." Zelda's voice was so soft, even I had a hard time hearing (and that's something). Somehow, Link heard it, for he swiveled halfway around in his chair to look at the girl who stood short of his bed (where I was). At first, Link didn't say anything.

"Is there something bothering you?" the teen asked cautiously after prolonged silence. I saw Zelda shift on her feet, her long gown swinging slightly. At current, she was in her oh-so-purdy-Barbie-doll form, which puzzled me. As I have previously stated, Zelda at home is usually in her Sheik form, running around not caring if she scabbed her knees. When Zelda was in her princess doll form, it was for a more formal occasion (yes, she considers school formal). So what's with this formality now? Did she just come back from a party? No.

Link knew Zelda very well, so it was obvious from the start that something was different to him.

"Well," the girl started to say, "this is a little hard to explain, but..."

"But what?" Link abruptly stood up. At first, I thought Zelda was going to confess something very personal. However, Link's sudden standing indicated that Zelda's face told a much different story. Zelda shifted her weight again.

"I'm... Moving," she said, faltering, "Away," I blinked. What? Zelda was moving? Where to? She has no family left but us!

"W-what?" Link was just as surprised as I was. At this point, the delicate lady sat down on the bed, struggling with the burden of delivering such a painful sentence. I sighed to myself, burying my face into my arm; poor Link.

"I have a guardian," she continued drearily, "her name's Impa. She decided it was time that I would move back with her."

"I guess I won't see you around school anymore – where I'm going is much too far away."

There was an awkward pause.

"Impa's a very caring guardian, so I am in good hands," Zelda reassured her friend. Link sat back down in his chair and sighed.

"Will I see you on holidays?" he asked.

"We'll see," Zelda replied, the smile in her voice warming the cold ambiance of the room. The two sat there for a while, perhaps staring at each other's eyes.

Finally, Link broke the silence, "When are you moving out?"

"Sometime next week,"

Silence. I felt my tail grow itchy, but I staid still, not wanting to let the two know I was there. Link would get really angry if he knew I was listening to this private conversation. It honestly wasn't my fault at all that I landed here, so the situation sucks even more. But, I will suffer the wait – I can wait all day if I wanted to.

Well, maybe not.

In a brilliant course of thought, I glanced at the lamp perched atop Link's desk, it's light glowing a golden hue. Electricity buzzed in my blood, and I mentally told the circuit lighting the lightbulb to open.

In a click, the lightbulb went dark. The response was immediate.

"The light's dead," Link noted, and got up to go get a new bulb. His feet exited the door, which he left open. I waited for Zelda to follow.

After was seemed like forever, Zelda got up, and left the room. It was then I made a mad dash to Kirby's room, clutching the ruby ring in my hand.

***

After dinner, I logged on to the Internet through my iLuigi. Somehow, I had to get the information about all the precious goodies I held onto the Inter-Galactic Web. Yep, in my world, there is an existing website with "igw". Usually, I use "www", but the Squeak Squad were universally known thieves, so I had to make my information universal. And what better way is there to do it than go onto some random chat forum and spill it all? Isn't that what teens do now? So, the next step was setting accounts for as many different social websites as possible. As I was doing that, I was placing every bit of information about my location of the treasure. Sure, it's bad to give the address of your house to the whole world (let alone the universe), but this is Samus's house we're talking about. I'm sure she can bust any random stalker's sorry bottom with that arm cannon. If not, Cap'n Falcon will Falcon Punch it to the moon.

And, of course, I BRAGGED about all of the famous wealth I had worth of priceless items, like heavenly ornaments and a breath-taking ruby ring. Within a few seconds, some several million people didn't believe me, and spammed me with loads of crap filled with "pretty" words saying I should shut my mouth.

In response, I posted pictures of every single piece of work, with me holding each one (for further proof). Then, people started avoiding me – I guess they they couldn't suck up their pride and say sorry for calling me a donkey and a gosh-darned butt hole. I was chuckling to myself, visiting my Facebook profile the next day when Kirby decided to pop in for a morning visit before he went off to scold Yoshi for eating the triceratops foot.

"Wassup?" I asked him, "How's the museum?" Kirby smiled.

"It's almost done, I guess," he answered, "I still got to do some touch-ups, though." I raised my eyebrows.

"So soon? I thought it would take forever,"

"Nope," Kirby shook his head, "Mario and Luigi are helping me, remember?"

"Oh," I returned to my phone, and used the keyboard to reply back to a nasty comment. Somehow, people still find ways to express their knowledge of no-no language.

_u no wat? f u and i hope u go to h*** u f***ing chicken s*** _

I was quick to respond.

_I assure you that I will go to "home" (I am already at home) and I am NOT a "flaming" chicken "swan". What is that supposed to mean, anyways? It sounds like some kind of spicy barbecue. I'm vegetarian._

_P.S. Doesn't FU stand for "Fyoraland University?"_

"You know that you really didn't have to collect all of that stuff," Kirby said, after looking over my shoulder at my message. I frowned and looked up at him – my pink friend was standing on his bed while I sat in my basket on the floor.

"What stuff?"

"All of the ornaments and that ring," he replied calmly. I raised an eyebrow, ready to demonstrate my superior knowledge of the Squeak Squad.

"For your info-may-shawn," I said, waggling a finger, "it has been said that Spinni could sniff out the scent of precious metals and gems on the items." Kirby exhaled sharply.

"Yeah," Kirby chuckled, "but he couldn't sniff a shortcake through a fancy treasure box – all you _really_ had to do is get a fancy treasure box and claim that you had a lot of precious valuables." I blinked hard, feeling a little dumb.

"What if Doc has an X-ray machine in his UFO thingy and scanned the -"

"Well he obviously didn't scan the treasure box that had my shortcake in it if he had such thing," he countered. Dang it – does Kirby have to make me feel stupid right now? I propped my chin on my fist grumpily, and my friend eyed me with a star-blue stare.

"When are you starting this operation?" I looked back at him, and grinned, excitement flooding my senses.

"Tonight."

* * *

**FINALLY! I have finished a nice, long chapter for my readers to enjoy (hopefully). Those who still are following this sluggish story, I am very glad for you guys. Thanks! I am trying my absolute best to update as frequently as I can - please bear with me!  
**

**Review, por favor?  
**


	24. BerryTopped Mouthwatering Goodness

**A Delectable Slice of Berry-Topped Mouthwatering Goodness**

"I don't get it,"

I sat in my basket the next day, reviewing the films over and over again, trying to find out what I had done wrong. Kirby sighed as he scribbled out several notes in his pink notebook before snapping it shut.

"It's okay Pikachu," he said patiently, trying to make me feel better, "it was only the first night – do you think they would come promptly?" I frowned, rewinding the tape over again. Nothing was different. Nothing had been stolen. Nothing happened. What a bummer. Frustrated, I chucked the tape recorder across the room and out the open door. There was a smashing sound, and an "OW!" Not meaning to hurt someone, I jumped up and panicked.

"Oh, I am so sorry – I am so sorry – I – I," I blubbered when Luigi walked into the room, rubbing a bruise on his forehead with one hand and carrying my beanie pillow in the other. Oh... I forgot to get that when I was running for my life from Jigglypuff.

"It's-a okay," the Italian man replied nonchalantly, "you forgot-a this." He tossed me the pillow, landing in my open arms.

"Thanks," The tiny foam beads inside rolled about as I placed it down carelessly. Kirby waited for Luigi to leave the room before he spoke again.

"The Squeak Squad aren't _dumb_," Kirby emphasized, "well, they can be, but Daroach is a very cunning thief. It takes a lot to fool him – that's why he hasn't been caught yet." I thought about Kirby's words. How smart was Daroach? And how would he know that my bait was actually a trap? For the time being, my mind was nulled by lack of sleep – I had waited all night, anticipating the Squeak Squad to come along. So, if I wanted to think straight, I had to have clear air, which meant I had to go outside. I exited the room, taking my phone with me so I could do some more research on the Internet. I don't know why I was so obsessed with this project – maybe it's because it was the only thing I could think of doing over the summer.

I trudged through the field past Captain Falcon's lawn, slender stalks budded with wildflowers waving gently in the breeze.

"What would _I_ do if I was a leader of a group of thieves, and I was offered a good deal?" I said out loud to no one in particular. Kirby always laughed at me when I "talked to myself". I don't talk to myself, but I hold long, philosophical conversations with my conscience every now and then.

"I don't know Pikachu," my conscience spoke through my mouth, "maybe the Squeak Squad aren't going for the bait because they are being cautious. Maybe Daroach suspects something – your bait seems too good to be true." I thought about that, and brightened.

"You are a genius,"

"Thank you, Pikachu – you're brilliant too," I thought about what my conscience had said.

"How can I make my bait seem more realistic and tempting?" I continued to talk aloud, staring up into the sky.

"Easy," my conscience replied through my mouth, "Lock it up in a safe, and say it is under strict protection over million gazillion accounts you have on the Internet." I snapped my fingers, my thought process clicking into place.

"Oh you are so good," I complimented.

"Pikachu," someone was behind me, "are you talking to yourself again?" I turned around and jumped in surprised to see Kirby standing in the grass, with a slightly disturbed look on his childish face.

"Nyargh!" I shook my arms, "Don't scare me like that, Kirby!" My pink friend's mouth pinched up to hold back a laugh.

"Well I'm _sorry_," Kirby said sarcastically, "I didn't know you were talking to yourself _again."_ I snorted – talking to one's conscience was ingenious, but talking to one's self is absolutely outrageous. Since when have I done that?

"I don't talk to _myself_," I distinguished, emphasizing the subjects, "I talk to my _conscience." _The puffball exhaled sharply in response, and pulled out a lollipop from thin air. My eyeballs popped from my head.

"HOW did you do that?!" I cried, pointing at the lollipop. Kirby, looked at the lollipop, frowning.

"What about it?" he asked, simply.

"You pulled it from the air like _that!" _I snapped my fingers for punctuality. Just then, he burst out laughing.

"I had it behind my back, _stupid,"_ he chuckled, causing me to feel a little less bright. I folded my arms, and gave him my meanie-glare. Kirby remained dauntless, and continued to chuckle to himself, before popping the candy in his mouth. Ah... Whatever. I have MORE important matters to think about.

It seemed that Kirby was thinking along the same wavelength as I. He shifted his weight to the side, and gave me a long look, before saying,

"Make sure you sound sincere when you say you're locking up your stuff – you sound awfully corny on the Internet." I stuck out my chin at him.

"I would like to see you do better," I challenged smoothly. Kirby stood up as straight as he could in defiance.

"As a matter of fact, I _did_ do better,"

He did WHAT?!

"How on earth would you know?" I waved my arms crazily at him. My pink friend gave me a sideways glance, a smug grin planted on his face.

"Anyone can do better than what you did," he explained nonchalantly, "but asides from that, I hacked onto all your accounts and modified your descriptions a little bit. You still sound boastful, though." My body was frozen, and my gaze remained on the puffball as he waited expectantly for a reply. I managed to get my jaw to work.

"But how?" I asked, my arms hanging limply. Kirby gave me another sideways glance, looked down towards the ground, and then made a slight cough. Out of his mouth and into his stubby hand was his iLuigi. He didn't need to explain any further than that.

Wow. I was totally slaughtered. My whole plan that I thought I could do on my own and with my own genius was ran over. I sighed and sat down in the grass. Somewhere behind me, I heard higgling and the sound of vegetation being munched upon. Yoshi was out here too. Meanwhile, Kirby was studying me, his star-blue eyes gazing calmly and steadily.

"You know, Pikachu? The Internet thing _was_ a good idea," he assured me, and sat down in the grass too, "it's just you went overboard." I frowned and looked up at him. He smirked, rolling his eyes and leaned back to rest on his stubby hands.

"You did all the research too," Kirby added, "I'm pretty sure that the Squeak Squad are on their way soon, and then we'll have something to do again." He smiled reassuringly, and I could only half-heartedly smile back. Something was still bothering me.

I was thinking to myself that night, laying awake and staring up at the ceiling. Kirby was asleep with his Sleeping Cap on (which means no one can wake him up until it's taken off his head), and Yoshi was tucked into bed thousands of miles above the Earth. In my head, I was trying to think like how Daroach would think.

He wanted the treasure all right. We have a tempting bunch, too – especially the ring. Reaching under a pillow, I pulled out the masterpiece, it's authentic weight calming me. Who didn't want this?

It was funny, though, that Daroach was rather selective in his theft. Only the prestigious Aniram pieces were stolen. There are many other beautiful artisan crafts out there in the world – sure all of the Aniram pieces would fall under that category but there were countless others too. Maybe it was personal business. I'll ask him when he gets here – if he ever does.

I turned over in my basket, fingering the ring with frustration. I was bored to death with nothing to do except watch Kirby's museum rise in splendor. How can I get a smart rodent to fall for the trap? I know that Kirby had been trying to get me to see in other people's perspectives over the past few years, but I couldn't help but refer to my own interests. I was desperate for something adventurous, and I will use all of my options. What fired me up to do stupid things?

I remembered there was that time when I blew up Mario's oven. That was because I got SO angry at Jigglypuff. We were in the Red Kitchen baking snickerdoodles, and that snooty pokemon made a bet that she could make better snickerdoodles than I could. I knew I couldn't cook for my life – why, I bet you I can make a bowl of milk and cereal catch on fire. But I couldn't just sit there and let Jigglypuff call me a scaredy-cat. It turned out that my snickerdoodles shriveled up and actually caught on fire, while Jigglypuff's snickerdoodles tasted all right (tasted like crap to me). She was gloating over her triumph when I threw an electrifying punch, which missed and hit Mario's oven and Jigglypuff's second batch of cookies. Dumbest thing ever – I couldn't believe I had let myself get humiliated and scorched by Mario's hot potato wrath. But I was so mad at Jigglypuff...

I thought about the reason why I even decided to capture the Squeak Squad. Didn't Kirby say that _no one_ has ever caught them before? Excitement rose within me again – I wanted to catch them and prove to all those people that the Squeak Squad aren't impossible to capture.

That's when it clicked.

I quickly dug around underneath another pillow and withdrew my iLuigi. I hit the power button, and the touch screen was immediately flooded with light, displaying the new background of Kirby running away from Jigglypuff's mistletoe scheme. Pulling up an Internet browser, I randomly chose a website to post my first of many blogs. It just so I happened to notice there was a new message for me.

_Wow u have a lot of new stuff does it work_

Nyargh! Text talk! But it was talking about the "security system" I had guarding the treasure. I quickly responded to the message.

_Oh yeah – it DOES work. Works like magic. We caught a burglar with it and he was sent to prison. He was a notorious burglar, too. If he can't get past mah layzas, no one can._

Apparently, this person was still online, because the response was almost immediate (teens these days – they're just addicted to the Internet).

_Wow rly that is sooo cool but wat about the squeaks_

I must play dumb with this one.

_What about them?_

Whoever this was (I'm guessing a girl, because her name is 6e_chic321) was STILL online. That's good.

_U no they r so good at stealing stuff and yea and like nobody caught them_

This was the opportunity I was waiting for.

_Yep. I don't even think the Squeaks can get past my barrier._

There was the challenge.

_Omg rly that is like impossible u sure it works I need something like that b/c I have this lamp that is worth like alot._

Oh thank goodness, her communication skills are improving.

_Oh I don't think they can't even get past the front gate. All of my possessions are still intact – every single one of them. Nothing stolen._

This time, it took five minutes for a reply. I was settling myself down to post my special blog when 6e_chic321 replied.

_Wow that is so cool my bff thinks ur lying tho lots of people thinks ur lying but I dont think so ill post something 4 u ;)_

Just what I need. I grinned to myself.

_Okay, thanks! =D_

And I settled myself down to post my new blog with my new challenge. I hope that this challenge would get Daroach so fired up that he'll fall for the trap like I fell for Jigglypuff's taunts. And he won't be able to escape this time.

What? I _already_ have a message? I didn't even post my blog yet!

_Do u think daroach is hot 3_

... I'm going to pass on that one.

***

It had been a few days since of my brilliant plan. Well, could I say it was brilliant? People across the intergalactic web were making bets against each other for either side of the argument – whether a burglar can get past my boundary and not get caught or just fail miserably altogether. They're hyped up – in fact, they're posting so many blogs and polls I will have to credit them if the Squeak Squad _do_ fall into our trap.

Kirby thought it too brash, as usual. And he is usually right – I'm starting to think he is, now. No one showed up. Actually, there was one instance where there was a false alarm, but it was just Yoshi paying a nighttime visit.

Just because I didn't catch the Squeaks doesn't mean I was disappointed to see my friend. He was staying with us for a while until Mario and Luigi finish negotiating with someone called Bowser. Peach claimed that he stole her special ruby ring. Oh if she ever found out who _really_ stole her ring... I'll be screwed.

The KPY trio was sitting in a triangle on bean bag cushions in Kirby's finished museum. I have to admit it was _impressive_. The marble and elegantly erected fossils and sculptures were spectacular, and the design superb. And it was absolutely awesome to just sit and chill in it. I lounged lazily, staring down into the aquarium below me, watching the newly arrived coelacanth swim just as carelessly.

"I always wanted to try creating a trilobite," Kirby bubbled enthusiastically to particularly no one, "and then I could put it the waterfall pool over there. I looked over to the waterfall. It was a saltwater cascade that flowed down from a rock formation and into a shallow pool, that flowed into the aquarium beneath us, where Mr. Fishy was. However, Yoshi was interested in other ideas.

"Where'sh the mices?" he squealed over Kirby, his voice half-subdued by chewed up berry tarts. Yoshi got his attention – Kirby brushed off crumbs into a small bin where we were putting our trash into.

"You mean the Squeak Squad?" he asked. Yoshi tilted his head to the side.

"The mices?" he squealed again.

"The Squeak Squad?"

"The mices?" Now Yoshi was somehow standing on his head in Ramrod position, his eyes buried into the bean bag. Kirby and I glanced each other and frowned.

"Yes, the Squeaks," I answered for my fellow dinosaur friend.

"Large friesh, Big Mac, and a large diet Coke," he agreed dreamily. Sometimes I wonder what he was talking about – he doesn't even eat beef. But I took his word for it.

"I don't know where they are, Yoshi," Kirby said, his voice a little stern. I think he was getting impatient with our impatience with the Squeaks lack of arrival. But how could he reprimand Yoshi?

"Luke, I am yo' father," Yoshi answered sleepily and fell over with a thud. Kirby stared at him for a while as the dinosaur slept, and shook his head. Just then, Mario waltzed in, appearing out of no where. The first time I saw him do that, it freaked the jeepers out of me. But now, knowing him for a while and his antics, I didn't find anything strange. Besides, he brought in some yummy-num-nums.

"I thought you guyz would-a like-a this," And the Italian man laid out before us slices of strawberry shortcake – Kirby's favorite. Eagerly, the pink puffball reached out to his slice with gracing arms. Yoshi sniffed, and stirred in his sleep. He didn't wake up. He'll eat his slice when he wakes up.

Mario had left us to eat our cake, humming tunelessly, disappearing as suddenly as he appeared. Kirby paid no mind, though – he was too busy with his cake. It was only when he had finished he realized I hadn't touched mine yet. I had been thinking about Kirby's incident with the Squeak Squad.

"Are you going to eat that?" Kirby asked. I didn't listen to the question, though. Instead, I said,

"Was the shortcake really a big deal?" Kirby blinked, perplexed for a second before his expression hardened. Realizing that I was talking about his Squeak Squad escapade, he pointed at my shortcake with his fork.

_"That_ right there is a delectable slice of berry-topped, mouthwatering goodness," he said firmly, "How can you _not_ let that be taken away from you? It's priceless – ESPECIALLY when you're hungry."

"But you're always hungry," I muttered.

"So," Kirby huffed indifferently, "that doesn't matter. Anyways, that was the past," I frowned, and glumly stared down at the floor, where Mr. Fishy glubbed about in his tank. This summer is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring.

"Are you going to eat that?" Kirby asked again. Judging by his assertion, I believed that he couldn't tell I was down in the dumps. For no reason at all, I got pissed off with his behavior. It burned, and my electricity vamped up high. In one, fluid motion, I threw my fist hard into the cake in front of me, smushing through the cream, shortcake, and strawberries – right through the ceramic plate and onto the cold, hard floor. I didn't feel anything. I breathed harshly, my anger calming. Quickly, I looked up to see my friend looking very bewildered, his blue eyes wide.

"Damn," was all he said after a long silence. I sniffed, and pulled my hand from the mess before sitting back down into my bean bag cushion. We sat for a while with absolute quietness. The longer we sat, the more humane I became, and my other feelings came back. Meanwhile, Kirby was examining me closely.

"I think I see your problem," he finally stated.

"What problem?" I harrumphed. Kirby rolled his eyes.

"You know – the Squeak Squad one," he answered, before explaining, "when I met them, we were on a planet called Popstar. No one has ever heard of a planet called Popstar in this universe – well, except for this certain chess-website." Now, all my aggressions had faded away completely, replaced by keen curiosity.

"Continue," I nodded, listening intently. Kirby gave me a wry smile, before continuing.

"Popstar is actually located in a separate universe than this one," Immediately, my mind was blown, so far that I rolled over backwards in my bean bag cushion.

"Whoa," I cried, "are you sure it isn't a different galaxy?!" There was something about Kirby's grimness that told me that he was absolutely serious. And that drove me nuts.

"Positively," he confirmed. His expression was flat. I stared at him in disbelief – how on EARTH could there be other WORLDS?! UNIVERSES?!!!! How come I, out of all people, haven't heard ANYTHING about this? How come Mario and Luigi, the ultimate human beings in the universe, don't know ANYTHING about another UNIVERSE?!!! How can any of this make any sense? I mean, the universe is expanding - nothing lay beyond it. If there were other worlds, how come our universe hasn't collided with theirs yet? According to science, the universe is GAZILLIONS of years old! That's plenty enough time for worlds to make contact.

"You're joking!" And yet Kirby remained solemn as a the stony-faced Easter Island statues.

"I am not," he replied lightly, "I came from Popstar..." My stomach did two back flips and a somersault.

"As I was saying," my pink friend continued, "The Squeak Squad's base is located somewhere in Popstar's galaxy, so that is why no one has been able to find their threshold, because barely anyone has heard of Popstar. My guess is that they take all of their loot from _this_ world and store it wherever they store it – in a _different_ world." It was too hard to comprehend. Can YOU imagine some other world beyond this universe (or your universe, now that I mention it)? I was about to pull the fur from my ears when Kirby diverted me from my distress.

"Just think of it as _countries,"_ he explained in a calming manner, "Let's rephrase – the Squeaks have a base in a different _country_ in which they put their loot, which they stole from this _country_." Ah... Much better, Kirby.

"So," Kirby analyzed my problem further, matter-of-factly, "maybe the Squeaks haven't heard of anything while they sit in their base in _their country_, while all of your blogs and stuff is in _our_ _country_. It's only a matter of time before they will hear about things from our world – er _our country_." Kirby corrected himself, and smiled assuringly.

"CONGWATULATIONZ!" The two of us jumped to the sound of Yoshi, who was sitting bolt upright from his nap, "YOU'VE JUST WON A GIFT CE'TIFICATE TO WAL-MAWT!!!!!!"

***

In the middle of the night, I woke up. Not to the sounds of some burglar entry, as you would hope, but just to nature. I had to go potty.

I walked through the darkness, and into the nearest bathroom. I didn't turn on the lights, because I didn't want my eyes to become blinded. Besides, it would take them a while to get adjusted, only to be plunged back into darkness. I just leave it as it is, and conduct my business in the dark. I also don't close the door to the bathroom. Usually, the door is slightly ajar, so I don't have to jump up to reach the door handle. I just walk in, and leave the door a tad bit open.

This particular middle of the night was no different than any other bathroom trip. I pushed open the bathroom door, and pulled it nearly to a close, before settling myself on the toilet. Now, for humans, using the toilet is easy because it was built for human use. Now, imagine how difficult it is for a rat that is like knee-high to use a human toilet. It is difficult, but I got the hang of it – BUT DON'T ASK HOW I DO IT. But one of these days, I _swear_ I'll fall into the bowl. And THAT would be really gross.

I lost track of what I was doing when I was on the toilet. My mind had wandered again, and this time into the mysterious realm of multiple worlds. I guess Kirby's analogy was helpful, except I think planets would more accurately describe a "new" world. They are usually different, and bizarre, and floating in nothingness. But do worlds float in nothingness? What does an entire world look like? I imagined a wobbly bubble containing a bunch of stars and planets hovering amidst a checkered field of gray and white. But, according to my pink friend, there were more than one bubble. How close were the worlds to each other? In my mind, another bubble like the first one popped up a few millimeters away from the other. There, that's Popstar's world. Now what?

All of a sudden, I heard something shuffle on carpet. It was the slightest sound – carefully, I tilted and rotated my ears in order to magnify the sound. It was the sound of light footsteps. My stomach jumped out of my throat, excited. Yet, why am I still on the toilet?

I prepared myself to jump off and make a surprise attack, electricity vamping up to high voltage in my bloodstream. I was more than ready to strike when a green, bulbous nose poked open the door.

"Oops," Yoshi said, retreating backwards, "so'wee, Pikachu," Poof! Good feeling gone. Yoshi went away on tiptoe, as quiet as a mouse. I deflated, and left to my thinking on my methodical toilet.

Again, some noise disturbed the night. A vase shattered – I smirked. I wonder what Yoshi bumped into this time.

"Aah!" I heard him squeal, and the night was still. Rapid, little footsteps pattered in the hallway. Funny... Wasn't Yoshi here a few minutes ago?

The door to the bathroom was pushed up halfway, and suddenly a small figure moved dashed in. One that had round ears, and smelled like a he-rat.

Smelling me, he turned around, and I got a full glare of the moonlight reflecting off his shades.

And I thought to myself as I sat on the toilet, "...Why now?!!"

* * *

... **Pikachu knows how to make a good first-impression, huh? XD**

**I feel SOOOOOOOOO bad that this came in SOOOOOOOOOOOO late. And I am SOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for the long wait!!!! I am trying as hard as I can, believe it or not. **


	25. Man Down

**Man Down!**

The mouse's identity suddenly clicked in my mind.

"You!" I shouted, and as soon as the syllable left my mouth, Spinni bolted out the door. I sprung from the toilet and dashed after him, running on all fours through the dark of the house. I could hear his feet patter rapidly on the floor.

Now, I must admit Spinni is incredibly fast. But I had endurance, and perseverance – a stubborn, strongly-willed mind. There was NO way that I was gonna let that dude escape right from under my nose after waiting for SOOOOOOOOO long to capture him. Now I must act, fast! Luckily, I knew the house much better than he did. I dove down another hallway that acted as a shortcut. I ran and ran, listening to the patter of paws. They were drawing near, and I ran faster. Hopefully I could catch him!

Round the corner and then BAM!!!!! Sparks lit up a blank screen of black as I crashed into someone. Opening my eyes, hoping to see yellow fur and red shades.

Nope. It was Yoshi. He sat down on the ground, looking around him without any clue of what had happened. From our collision, his berry-tart had dropped on the floor and it sat dumbly on the ground in front of me, intact. Panicking, I glanced around. Hopefully Spinni hadn't escaped.

A quick rush of wind blew on the back of my head as something really fast rushed past. I didn't have to look to even guess that it was Spinni. I knew it, and he was getting away! What would I do?! I was flat on my bum, senseless! Think, Pikachu, THINK! You don't want this guy running away after you waited for half or more of the summer to freakin' catch him and his rodent buddies!! DO SOMETHING!!!!! A light of a lightbulb lit up the dark hallway as I thought of a brilliant plan. I picked up the berry tart, and chucked it as hard as I could in Spinni's direction. Instantaneously, Yoshi's tongue shot out and as the dessert sailed by Spinni, the sticky bulb of his tongue caught to the mouse's fluttering cape. The bulb nabbed the wanted treat, and as quickly as it went, the tongue bulb shot back to its source, dragging Spinni with it. It was kinda funny watching – it was almost witnessing a cartoon in action. Spinni ran forward and then stopped for a second, realizing he wasn't going anywhere, before zipping backwards along with Yoshi's tongue. But my laugh wasn't to last long; as the tongue sped back to Yoshi, it caught to my fur, and soon I felt an incredible force pull me towards the dinosaur. Together, me, Spinni, and the berry tart slapped into Yoshi.

What happened next was really weird. Instead of swallowing us whole, the tongue looped around Yoshi's body, and kept winding round and round and round until all of us were tied together tight uncomfortably with yards of sticky, slimy bounds. The atmosphere at that moment got tense with all three of us sitting there – none of us said a word. I thought about the thief that was slapped tight to the other side of Yoshi. I had a feeling that he was thinking along the lines of, "Oh shoot I'm in trouble," and "What in the world is going on?" The silence drew on, the sound of our breathing the only chorus disturbing it. The longer it went, the more awkward it felt – soon, I felt that it was high time someone should say something. I mean, I guess Spinni wasn't going anywhere anytime soon; we might as well get to know each other.

"Well," I finally said, "hey over there..." My ear pricked up to the sound of someone opening their bedroom door. Footsteps started to approach us. What to do now? I looked to the yellow rodent on the other side of higgling Yoshi (although I honestly couldn't see him past Yoshi's bulbous nose), wondering. I breathed in deeply, not knowing what to think about our situation at this moment. It was then I smelt it – fear. Spinni was afraid, and I've got my olfactory senses picking it up. If someone else sees him, what would they do? Would they call the cops? If they do, where would the cops take Spinni? To jail? Would they hurt him? Even though I barely got to see his actual physique, I could tell that he was young; no one really didn't have to look at him long to tell, if they couldn't smell it. In fact, he was just a little older than I was. If the cops caught him, they would send him to a prison where first-grade criminals were kept. But I've never heard of anyplace like that – what would the cops do to him?

No time to haste; I will decide his fate later.

"Yoshi," I whispered, "swallow your berry tart." And then I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable. Yoshi higgled before he slurped up his yards of red muscle, unwinding rapidly. I sucked in a breath before my best bud, the dinosaur, slurped the ninja thief and me altogether.

But he didn't swallow us. Instead, I was squashed uncomfortably against his cheek and Spinni's wet fur, his elbow sticking into my gut. He was squirming, causing Yoshi's tongue to undulate. Outside Yoshi's mouth, I heard a person approach. A muffled voice of a grown lady spoke to Yoshi – it must be Samus, the bounty hunter. Man! I wonder what she would do if she saw Spinni? In response, Yoshi mumbled back. Obviously, he had some difficulty, because his mouth was full of two, yellow rodents. Warm, humid air gushed up from deep within his lungs. I hoped Spinni was holding his breath – that's carbon dioxide there. To the side of me, the ninja thief stirred violently, his foot smushing into my face. I hissed at him,

"Do you want to live?!" Spinni's response wasn't impressed.

"I would appreciate it if you could get your butt out of my face!" So much for a good second impression. I thought about Samus outside, who just spoke to Yoshi. Suddenly, the world rocked around us from side to side, and the two of us were jostled about. We settled back down with my face looking up at the dangly-thing that hung at the back of Yoshi's throat.

"Better, princess?" I snapped. Judging by the muffled reply, I had a feeling that Spinni's face was squished against Yoshi's tongue. In my mind, I screamed, "JUST SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO SLEEP, SAMUS!!!" The world began to shake again, swinging to the side, and then bumped up and down as I felt Yoshi plod down the hall, and towards Kirby's room. We were jostled and bumped, too. My head was being rammed into the side of the dino's cheek when Spinni squealed. I thought of one thing – he was going down the esophagus.

So much for saving him. Another bump as Yoshi opened the door, and I was knocked towards the back of the throat, feeling my body against Spinni as we were lodged. Out of instinct, I reached out and yanked on the dangly-thing and then, all of a sudden, we shot forward, clean out of Yoshi's mouth. I crashed into the carpet face first, my nose smashed into the floor. Spinni was practically cannoned out, and the ninja collided painfully with me, and sent the two of us crashing into the wall. Stars and rubber ducks circled my head as birds tweeted, and Yoshi higgled happily. To my side, the rodent picked himself up quickly. He backed away quickly, pulling out a ninja star, and used a paw to straighten his shades. I raised my head, still dizzy, when I saw him at the window.

"No you don't!" I shouted, and lunged at him. At that moment, the ninja threw his shuriken. As it approached me at lightening speeds, I felt time slow down, my electrical senses cranking into high gear, my blood vamping. I concentrated on the conductor, and the ninja star whizzed by, just grazing my ear. But I wasn't finished with it – I made it rondezvous around my head to meet back to its source, the star spinning more dangerous than ever. I saw Spinni's ears prick up in surprise and in the nick of time, he ducked. There was a snicker from him.

"Nice shot," he jeered, "but you can't beat me!" I snorted, undaunted.

"It was your own ninja star, stupid!" I shot back and then saw Spinni frown for the slightest moment.

"Huh?" In his confusion, I pounced upon Spinni and grabbed by his ears, dragging him from the window. He squeaked, and thrashed his paws at me, crushing my neck to the floor. I mustered strength to throw my bottom weight up, and I kicked my offender over my head. Quickly, I flipped to my four feet, crouching in a defensive position. Spinni flew far – right into Kirby. I winced as the two tumbled over and behind the bed.

"What the - ?!" Kirby cried, suddenly awoken from his sleep. Then, recognizing the ninja, he yelled, "It's _you!_" Spinni squeaked in surprise; I could tell that, out of all people, he wasn't expecting his old nemesis. In panic, the yellow-furred ninja dashed away from him.

"Get back here, Spinni!" Kirby shouted after him, and snagged his trailing cape. The ninja yelped, suddenly caught, and I threw myself on him, tackling him into the wall.

"Knock 'im out, Pikachu!" My pink friend's command reached to my ears. I took no time to hesitate; I grabbed struggling Spinni by the ears and slammed my head into his. There was a "conk!" and Spinni slumped over, knocked out. I rubbed my forehead – damn! I must have one hard noggin. I stood over the thief, thinking. _I did it._ FINALLY! I have a Squeak!

"HO-YEAH!" I pumped my fist in victory. At that same moment the bedroom door opened. Fear filled my gut – I hope it wasn't Captain Falcon. He gets VERY grumpy when he is woken up.

There was no face at the door at first. Then, I looked down and saw a short figure of a boy.

"What's going on?" Ness whispered to us, "You're gonna wake up Dad!" In the corner, Kirby sighed with relief.

"We're not trying to," I said defensively, "we're just..." I tried thinking of an excuse as Ness waited, standing at the door.

"... Studying?" I finally said, shrugging. Immediately, I knew it was a lame excuse of an excuse.

"It's _summer_," Ness said, an obvious frown in his voice, "what kind of excuse is that?" Thing is, Ness ain't stupid. He's an incredibly brilliant child with superpowers. Link had said that when Samus was pregnant with him (hard to imagine Samus with a big belly) she was really upset, because she had just been back from a mission that involved with some dangerous substances. Well, Ness ended up okay, but I heard from Link that Samus freaked out when she found her new kid floating around the ceiling fan, still in his bundles. She had blamed it on that dangerous substance – fuse-on, or whatever it was called. The point is, Link thinks that it was the substance that made his little brother so smart and with powers like the jedi from Star Wars.

"We were having a pillow fight," Kirby intervened, a relief to me, "Don't tell." We weren't really allowed to have pillow fights after the lights goes out in the house, because it would wake up Captain Falcon, or Samus. Samus had left us be, but the Cap'n wasn't quite as merciful... I have NEVER seen his all-famous Falcon Punch, but I don't want to. I swear he was gonna punch me to the moon when his wife calmed him down, and then gave us a scolding. From then on, we didn't have any pillow fights in the Falcons' Nest after the lights go out. But we always have pillow fight when we are at the Castle.

"Oh," Ness answered, "That would explain some things... Good night."

"Night," we called after him, and the boy left, closing the door. We sighed.

"Hope Cap'n Falcon didn't hear," I said.

"Yeah," Kirby agreed heartily, "Now, let's get Spinni somewhere before he wakes up." We had already prepared a special cage for the Squeaks. It was spacious, we made sure, and it was in the secret storage room underneath the trapdoor hidden in the closet. Kirby opened up the door, and walked down the steps, with me following him. Yoshi brought in unconscious Spinni. When Kirby found this room, it was dusty and sort of creepy. Since then, the puffball had cleaned it up and furnished it to his liking. Sometimes he would study down here, or conduct complicate projects with dangerous chemicals in the lab he set up. Now this secret room hosted the cage where Spinni was to be for how long.

"Which reminds me," Kirby said, turning around slightly, "how long are you going to keep these guys?" I paused, wondering. I didn't like the sound of keeping people hostage – it made me seem cruel. But I did wonder why on earth did they only steal artisan crafts made by Aniram? And why didn't they sell any of them?

"Just until I get the answers I need," I said, "and then they can go," Kirby exhaled sharply as he unlocked the several padlocks latched to the door of the cage.

"You're crazy," he muttered, and opened the door. I shrugged and grinned at my pink friend.

"What can I say?" I defended myself, "It's been bugging me," Yoshi walked into the cage, and looked around for a place to lay Spinni down. I am not a cruel person, so I had no intentions on torturing the Squeaks by not giving them the comforts of homely life. I had made them nice beds, looking through old closets in the Castle. One of these beds was made inside a huge wheel hanging in the wall. When I first found it, I had been wondering what Mario and Luigi could be using it for. It was like one of those giant hamster wheels I saw in the pet shop long time ago. I took it anyways, because I was trying my best to make the cage look nice, and fill it with stuff other than the kind of wood chips and paper scraps I used to sleep in. Of course, I couldn't take actual beds, because I was afraid of someone getting onto my case. So, that is why I am stuck with old couches, old plastic castles, and the wheel.

Yoshi placed Spinni carelessly inside the wheel, and left to go to bed, higgling happily. I stepped inside, feeling troubled by the sight of Spinni half hanging out of the wheel. With an arm, I pushed the rest of his body onto the wheel, and his head onto the pillow. Then, I took the old quilt and covered him with it. I took off his shades, and looked at his closed, yellow lids, before placing it next to his head on the pillow. Satisfied, I left the ninja, and Kirby locked the door after me. Together, we walked up the stairs. From behind me, my pink friend chuckled.

"What?" I asked, wondering where the laugh came from. I turned around to see him smile.

"See? I told 'ya they would come," he answered teasingly. I snorted, and turned around to climb the rest of the way up.

"No you did not," I retorted, "You doubted me the WHOLE time. You were like, 'you are too brash,' and 'you're never gonna catch them like that,'."

"I was _not_," denied Kirby, "I believed in you all along," I hopped out of the secret room and onto the floor of the bedroom. The puffball followed in suit, closing the trapdoor behind us.

"And pigs fly," I replied sarcastically. Kirby exhaled sharply in amusement, and headed for bed. I crawled into my basket, feeling very accomplished. _Finally!_ After all this time, I have got someone! I couldn't wait to tell all those stupid, Internet tards who doubted me that_ I_ have caught a Squeak. But wait... What would happen if I told them? The whole universe was looking for them. What if some super creepy men in black suits come to this house and demand to take Spinni? Would they hurt them?

I knew they could, even though he was just a little older than I was. He was still too young in my opinion – but was he still young to the eyes of some cold-hearted man in a black suit? I thought of the millions of Internet people who were ready to laugh at me when I give up my escapade. I thought of Spinni. I don't want anybody getting hurt, and I didn't want to be embarrassed and flamed.

But... I think I can afford to be humiliated. Turning in my basket, I thought of my decision. Was I doing a good thing? I hope so.

"Good night," I called out to my two best buds and to Spinni in his wheel down below us.

"'Night," Kirby murmured.

**"GOOD NIGHT!!!"** Yoshi squealed, higgling. I sat bolt upright.

"Shh!" I hushed desperately. Too late... The door had opened and the figure of a tall man casted a long dark shadow over me.

Aw... Snap.

***

"Why don't you sell of that stuff?" I had gone right down to my business of asking questions when I delivered Spinni breakfast. His shades gleamed menacingly.

"Why do you smell so weird?" Spinni snapped back irritably. I scrunched up my face when I heard the insult.

"That was uncalled for," I muttered, "didn't your mom teach you manners?" I set down the breakfast tray by him. Using the excuse that I was playing tea party with Yoshi again, I scrounged up some milk, cookies, toast and butter. And a wedge of cheese, just in case he wanted some. I nodded towards his breakfast, and then looked up at the ninja. Spinni's face was screwed up, his mouth pinched and his eyebrows set deeply.

"Don't have a mom," He finally said. Well, I thought, I hadn't expected to get some personal stuff right away. I whistled, brushing myself off slowly and raised my eyebrows.

"Okay," I answered, "I don't really have a mom either – but _I_ at least have manners." Spinni stuck out his tongue at me before turning away, folding his arms grumpily. Fine, be that way. I left him to be by himself and his breakfast, locking the door on my way out. Besides, this wasn't the entire bonanza – there were still three other main Squeaks out there to get. I wanted to meet them all, including the infamous Daroach. When Daroach gets here, I'm gonna ask where in the world did he get his hat? I want one.

But of course, that's not the only questions I have for him. I had to ask him why he is so elusive, why he only steals Aniram's artisan crafts, why he never sells any of them, and probably some other questions that I'll think of when he actually gets here... It's just he needs to get here first. I already have Spinni, so he should come soon with the rest of the gang. I mean, c'mon, they have to care about the ninja just a little bit. They can't be that ignorant and cold, could they? I turned on my heel, ready to fire another question at Spinni.

"I'm back," I called to him. Spinni had been investigating his breakfast when I descended the stairs, and as quick as a breeze, turned right around and pretended to not be interested in calories and cheese. But I saw what he was doing, and I snorted. The yellow mouse looked over his shoulder, glaring.

"What do you want now?" he asked, a slight sneer in his voice. I looked down at his breakfast through the cage bars, wondering if he would actually starve himself to death before I can get an answer from him. I hope not. I suppose my question can wait a few more minutes.

"I want you to eat," I said, pointing to his food, "or else I'm going to eat it – I'm starving!" Which wasn't all that true, but I had to give Spinni some prompting. Instead of gobbling it down, Spinni made a "tch!" sound, and turned right around again. Okay, maybe he doesn't believe me. So, I opened the door to the cage, and walked toward the breakfast tray. I looked up to the mouse and he hadn't budged a bit. I shifted the plate a little bit, to sound like I was picking up the fine toast to eat. Spinni didn't move; maybe he _was_ trying to starve himself... Strange kid. I shook the plate again.

"I'm going to eat it now," I leered at him, shaking the plate. There was a suppressive sigh from the mouse.

"You didn't even pick up the toast," he spoke, "you're just moving the plate around." I was stunned.

"How do you know?" I grabbed the toast, "you didn't look."

_"Now_ you pick up the toast," Spinni observed, his back turned on me, "eat it - see if I care."

"You didn't even answer my question, dummy," I said impatiently, waving the toast at his back, "How do you even know?" Just then, I saw his ears flick, and reasoning clicked with my brain. Of course! Being a rodent, he had powerful hearing receptors, except in Spinni's case, they were even stronger and more acute. Why?

"How can you hear so well?" I asked dumbly. Spinni this time looked over his shoulder and grinned proudly.

"What? Can't rely on my sight all the time, now can I?" My own ears flicked, detecting a slight tone hidden under his pride. But what? I made a mental note to find out later, and just keep chugging on.

"Do you ever take off your glasses?" I asked him out of impulse. In my head, I shot myself – wasn't I supposed to be asking more important questions. But I guess, under my own standards, every question is equally important. Awaiting an answer, I stood and watched Spinni frown, adjusting his shades with a slight tap.

"No," the ninja answered flatly. Following his reply was silence, and we stared at each other; him slouching in his hamster wheel, and I standing holding a piece of toast stupidly by my side. After a while, Spinni sniffed, and looked down at the toast in my hand. He coughed slightly.

"Are you," he spoke hesitantly, "going to eat that?" Finally, I got somewhere with this dude. I grinned broadly at the ninja.

"Here, catch," I tossed the toast, and Spinni's ears flicked forward before he reached out and snagged his breakfast from the air. Swiftly, he nibbled on its crust, unashamed by taking his enemy's food. I stood by, watching him eat, and offered him some of the cookies when he was done with the toast. Surely enough, down to the last bit of cheese, the breakfast was finished. I put the tray aside and sat down on a nearby stool that Kirby had brought in. Now that Spinni has probably loosened up after eating, I may as well take the opportunity to ask him some more questions before he gets prissy again.

"So," I said, rolling on my butt as I rocked back and forth, "do you have any friends?" I tried to put it as nicely as I could, but apparently it wasn't nice enough. Spinni was back to being sour again.

"What are you," he spat, "some nosy brat?" My temper suddenly flared up, and I sat up straight, gripping my wooden stool so hard that it splintered from my grip. But was he speaking the truth? Why else did I capture them for? Only for my own selfish reasons. Still, I don't like being called a brat – who doesn't?

"Why don't you just shut up before I turn you into the police, huh?" It's effect was immediate, and Spinni's ears flattened against his head as fear possessed him. I thought it was a very mean tactic, but I had to show the ninja who's boss around here. Definitely ain't Daroach, because he wasn't here. And if he gets here, he's bound by the same situation, under our mercy.

"What are you going to do me?" Spinni's usually outspoken voice now came out as a meek whimper. I frowned at him, and twiddled my thumbs worriedly.

"Nothing really," I found myself honestly speaking, "I just wanted to figure out some things – and I was kinda bored." A snort came from the ninja as he relaxed.

"You _are_ a nosy brat,"

"Well," I grinned, leaning back on my stool, "better than the police, right?" He couldn't argue with that one.

It was a tense discussion; Spinni was very terse and protective of the Squeak Squad's secrets, and rarely told me anything. Kirby, at one point, had offered to beat the crap out of Spinni, but I declined. We had to be nice to guests, ninjas and princesses alike. At least Spinni was a little bit nicer to me, after I waved my threat in his face. That seemed to be the only main thing I gained from my discussion, as three hours finally rolled past. Ah well, it's just a step closer to getting my answers, right?

In the meantime, I had to find out how to get the other people. I still wasn't quite satisfied with just Spinni – I had to get the whole collection. I am so cruel, aren't I? But when you're bored in the middle of summer, and when questions constantly bug your brain like ever-present mosquitoes, what can you do? So, I decided to get some suggestions from around the family and friends. I already knew what Kirby would say ("just sit there and wait it out,"), and I knew Yoshi would tell me to lure them with cheese or something absurd, so I extended outwards.

First name that popped in my head was Samus. She worked for GFS or something like that, and she fought against evil, like in Saturday cartoons. Maybe she knew a thing or two about capturing thieves. Thing is, I didn't see her at lunch, so I after I gobbled down my sandwich, I pranced off to Link's room. He should know where his mom went.

"Knock, knock," I greeted the teen. Link was at his desk, writing painstakingly on a piece of paper. Homework, I suppose – I climbed up onto his head for a better look.

"Watcha writing?" I asked, waving my hand in front of his face, "Is this supposed to be an essay?" I gave it a quick glance. Although my eyesight wasn't quite as good as Kirby's, I could tell that Link had been erasing a lot.

"You call this an essay, Link?" I said, not waiting for an answer, "Man, I can eat alphabet soup and crap out a better essay than that!" Link reached up and pulled me off his head by the scruff of my neck. I was about to protest, because being picked up by your neck was uncomfortable, but then I noticed that he had a hardened look on his face. It was a firm expression, but his watery, blue eyes were saddened. My mouth remained clamped, and expected no answer at all. Instead, Link finally answered,

"It's a letter," A letter for Zelda, who no longer lived with us. Respectfully, I only nodded. Zelda wasn't just Link's love, she was his best friend. Once he got rid of me, he always spent his forest adventures with Sheik, and studied with Zelda. Zelda was both tomboy companion and pretty girl, but much more to Link. So, I left the matter be.

"What do you want, Pikachu?" Link sighed, setting me down on his desk beside the letter. I scratched my ear, quickly combing my claws through its fur before settling back and giving my head a shake.

"Where's your mom?" Link only shrugged.

"I think she's in the garage with Dad," he said, "I know that Dad's repairing a car – maybe she's with him." So I went to the garage, just like my old bud suggested.

First thing I saw was a flash of light followed by a cloud of dark smoke. From inside the cloud, I heard someone cough.

"That's why I'm not a mechanic," Samus muttered to herself, slowly becoming visible as the smoke cleared, blond hair covered with soot. She was with Captain Falcon, all right, but they weren't repairing a car – at least I wouldn't call it a car. It was Samus's ship. The bounty hunter was working at some of the wires that came out of a panel along one of the sides of the arms that docked to the ground. Her husband was nearby, expertly attending to an opened hatch underneath the great ship, smiling broadly. I looked at the two, wondering why were they together? It was an unlikely pairing, coming from a very aggressive first meeting. I remember Cap'n Falcon telling us fondly about when he first met Samus. Samus had been driving on the road, going home right after her mission when she crashed into Cap'n Falcon, and he got pissed off at her. Samus was getting out of her car to apologize when Cap'n Falcon Falcon Punched her back, crashing her into her car. Luckily, she was still wearing her armor. Samus didn't get aggressive until he mistaken her for man. So, they had some sort of short brawl, and they ended up falling in love after that. It's confusing, but it happened – obviously.

"Hiya, Pikachu," the captain called to me cheerfully, oblivious to last night's events, "Watcha doin' here?" I relaxed, comfortable knowing that he wasn't going to Falcon pummel me into the wall. But then again, I don't know whether if this was a good time to ask any questions. Besides, I heard from Link that Samus could get pretty sensitive when she talks of her previous missions – especially the ones that involved deaths significant to her. Deciding that it would be best, I left my questions to be answered on a later date.

"I was gonna ask you guys something," I said casually, "but you guys look busy – I can ask later, can't I?" Samus turned around and smiled, her aquamarine eyes contrasting starkly against her blackened skin; now that I have actually seen her, it made it easy for me to know where Link's brilliant eyes come from. Both were inquisitive and both had a daring expression. It seemed as though she knew what I wanted to ask, but she was smiling honestly. Nothing looked fake about it.

"Of course," her smile was just as evident in her voice as well as her face, and she turned around to continue her work. I left the two, thinking of what to do now, as another puff of smoke fumed behind me.

***

"Are you friends with your Squeak buds?" It was dinnertime for Spinni, and I had brought him a tray with a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. The sandwich was all right, but the soup suffered some spills on its journey from the dinner table to Kirby's room. The yellow mouse eyed the puddles of red liquid that scattered the tray and down my front. He sniffed.

"Nice," he commented, ignoring my question. Again. He was always finding a way around the subject. Impatiently, I set down the dinner tray with a hard "tak!". Spinni looked up at me and his eyebrows furrowed.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked me. I swear I wanted to bite his head off – instead, I calmed myself down.

"You're difficult person, you know?" I seethed, "You never answer _anything_," The ninja picked up his grilled cheese uncomfortably, shifting in his seat on the wheel.

"Do you ever think that I don't want to answer those questions?" he snapped, "You're a difficult person, too – and a nosy, brat." I glared at him, and stood up on the stool.

"Can't you see that you are driving me _insane?!"_ I shouted at him, spit flying from my mouth. As usual, Spinni's response was emotionless. He merely adjusted his glasses and frowned. This time, however, he said,

"I can't see that far," Well. I sat back down, dumbstruck; it wasn't the answer I was looking for, but it was at least an answer. Now I know the mystery to his shades. But wait, his shades can't be prescription glasses because he couldn't get them without the doctor dialing the police. Maybe Doc made it for him – but wouldn't Spinni be able to see me if he was wearing glasses?

"Why can't you see me?" I asked him, innocently. Spinni looked up at me – or at least it seemed that he did. He couldn't see as far as I was sitting, which wasn't far at all, shades glinting in the light from the lamp. I studied his shades, which were really opaque for actual shades. Kirby told me later that those kind of glasses weren't for vision. So, as I stared up at the dark ceiling at night, wondering what it was like for Spinni, I realized that I had already determined one of the Squeak Squad's deep secrets.

Spinni was an extremely agile fighter, and an excellent sharpshooter, making bulls-eyes consistently on the dartboard we gave him for entertainment. Watching him chuck darts across the broad room so precisely and so accurately never made me think once that he had problems with his vision. He gave everyone the impression that he had the keenest aim and the sharpest eyes.

The truth about Spinni is that he's actually blind.

* * *

**And this sucked. Why should I bother you guys with this kind of crap? The content sucks, the ending sucks, the timliness sucks, the grammar sucks - it just sucks altogether.**

**So, I'm sorry. Maybe some of you guys were waiting for such a long time for the new chapter only to find duck turd. Life's been busy and stressful, and I'm caught between my imagination and the real world. Somwhere between the two, in a gray area. It's not a very comfortable place to be, guys.  
**


	26. Guess Who

**Guess Who**

Well... Today so far was a little _weird._

It seemed like the perfect setting for something interesting to happen, and indeed LOTS of interesting things happened. It all began before I woke up in the morning.

I had been dreaming, obviously, but it wasn't at all a pleasant dream. I felt like I had to run for my life the entire time – and I was indeed running for my life. It wasn't the typical monster-is-trying-to-get-me nightmare. No; this was much different. All I knew is that someone powerful and almighty wanted something from me, something important. A notion at the back of my head told me that it could mean ultimate devastation if the dude got it – and there was no way I was gonna let him have whatever I have. So I was running through the entire dream, past explosions across a blue scene, with tentacles waving into the air from the ground. It had been hard to breathe there, and I felt lightheaded; but I kept on running. An explosion behind me, and I toppled over. In the dream, I heard Kirby cry out,

"Keep running, Pikachu! Just go!" I didn't answer, but I kept running on and on. I had heard myself panting heavily and a beeping noise steadily increasing its frequency. On and on I scurried, trying to distance myself from the world's danger as far as possible, when I suddenly ran into darkness. Time slowed down, and I was suddenly drifting through nothingness. Before I woke up, cold sweat moistening my fur, I heard a low, rumbling, menacing voice whisper,

_"You can't run away forever... You're mine."_

So, that was the first thing that happened. The second thing came around shortly after breakfast. I was helping to put away dishes with Kirby when the kitchen phone rang. Samus, who was nearby eating her simple breakfast of toast and jam, used her adult privileges to answer it. Normal stuff, honestly – we continued to stack the dishes into the cabinet. I was about to put the last dish in the cabinet when I heard Samus fall behind us, phone clattering on the tiled floor. Quickly turning around, I saw that she was knocked out cold, her skin pale. Right away, I could see something wrong. One, Samus is a very strong person, so it takes a whole heck load of beating to bring her down – even a Falcon Punch can't leave her trembling on the ground. Samus wasn't just trembling on the ground – she was KO'ed. Setting the plate down, I jumped from the counter top and onto the floor. Hurriedly, I walked over to Samus, and waved my hand over her face. Nothing. I poked her cheek and she still didn't respond. Jee, something really got her this time.

"Hello?" I heard a voice come from the fallen phone. Tentatively I picked up, hoping that I wasn't going to be knocked cold, too. Whatever the other person had at the other end of the speaker, that was some potent stuff.

"Yes?" I finally answered, holding the phone slightly away from me.

"Samus?" The voice sounded like a computer, a machine humming, except it had fluctuations in tone. By the sound of it, the speaker was a guy, and he sounded concerned. There is number two – the mysterious caller.

"No," I replied slowly and carefully. There was a sigh from the other end.

"Is she there?" the voice asked me. I heard machinery and gears whirring in the background. Where in the world did this guy call from. My fingers nervously tapped the phone.

"Ah," I began uncomfortably, wondering how to explain Samus's current condition to this mystery man, "she's a little... Distraught. She can't really talk right know, sorry." Another metallic sigh.

"Is she all right?" I glanced down at Samus's face, and then to Kirby, who made a slight shrugging gesture.

"I guess so," I rubbed the back of my neck, thinking, "Would you like me to leave a message for her?" Machines continued to whir in the background.

"Yes, that would be favorable," the voice answered, "Tell her that Ghor said hello, and that we are all okay."

"Okay," I said, nodding. I was about to hang up when the voice spoke up again.

"Don't forget to say _'we'_," and then the mysterious caller hung up, a long, drawn out beep replacing the background sound of machinery. Dumbfounded, I returned the phone to its cradle, as Kirby shifted uneasily behind me.

"What was that all about?" my pink friend asked me. I only shrugged.

"No clue, Kirby," was my response, before looking down to Samus, "it's just I wonder how come she was so stunned when the dude called her." Kirby merely shook his head, and together we went to get some help from Cap'n Falcon.

That was the second thing. Third thing is that Spinni actually wasn't uptight about my interrogation after I told him that all I wanted from him were answers. He seemed to be very fond of Doc, who took care of Spinni when he was younger. Like myself, Spinni had been dumped from his family, but in this case it was because he remained blind long after his siblings had gained their vision. He told me that his parents were tired of taking care of him, so they left him on the streets to fend for himself. His father was a sharpshooter himself, and his mother a sculptor, and both were heavily disappointed that he couldn't see. Especially his father, who wanted a boy to grow up with the same talents.

"I sure did, all right," Spinni sighed bitterly, folding his arms, "Just a little too late." I frowned at him, feeling sorrow well up inside me.

"Why don't you go back?" At that point, Spinni raised his head in the direction of my voice, almost as if he was looking directly at me, seeing.

"Do you really think I can go back now, with a criminal record like mine?"

At lunch, there was a fourth, strange happening.

"There was a call for you this morning, Samus," I said to the distraught woman. Samus tilted her head up just slightly, staring at a space just beyond her sandwich. She gave a short nod for me to continue. In my head, I was wondering if I shouldn't say anything at all, considering the fact that Samus went flat out unconscious earlier. I gave in – the man on the other end of the conversation sounded like he really wanted to talk to Samus, or at least know that he said, "hi". I honored his wish.

"In that call, there was a guy called Ghor. He said, 'hello'," I started watching Samus carefully. The bounty hunter trembled in her seat at the table, and fingered her uneaten sandwich, and shook her head, as if doubting something, deciding something was impossible. I waited for a few more seconds before continuing.

"And he said to tell you that, _'we'_ are okay." I emphasized the "we", just how the mystery man wanted me to. Just then, Samus looked up, her intense, blue eyes gazing directly at me. I have never seen an adult look as helpless in the presence of a child, let alone a rat.

"We?" The bounty hunter's voice was soft.

"That's what the guy said," I confirmed. Who was "we"? But Samus seemed to know. She muffled a cry with her two hands, and squeezed her eyes shut, rocking back and forth. From the corners of her eyelids, tears began to fall down the contours of her slim face. Now, that was strange. I've already told you that Samus is strong. She is also emotionally strong, but now I bear witness to her tears. Kirby and I glanced at each other.

"How is that possible?" She cried into her hands, "How?" But, as quickly as her time of weakness came, it went. Samus stopped shuddering, remaining perfectly poised, and removed the last trickles of tears from her eyes with a firm brush of her hand. She stood up, leaving her sandwich sitting forlornly on its little, white plate.

"Thank you, Pikachu," she said, nodding. Then, briskly, she turned and walked out of the dining room off to another part of the house, calling for her husband.

"Jay? Jay!"

"Sammy?"

"Can you tell Ness that I am sorry I cannot take him to his friend's house today?" There was a pause.

"Wait, Sammy – you're leaving so soon?" Another pause.

"Jay," Samus said to her husband before moving out of hearing range, "they are waiting for me – could this really be a miracle?"

"Who?" There was silence to me, but farther away in a hall, Samus answered.

"They are? How can that be? I thought they were..." Captain Falcon's voice trailed off as the two moved away from hearing range. So, the captain now knows too.

I was greeted into Kirby's secret room with a dart whizzing at my head. In the nick of time, I had ducked and the projectile made a satisfactory "thunk!" into the bulls-eye right behind me. Scowling at the yellow rat, I yelled to him,

"Hey, watch where you're throwing those things, next time!" Spinni stuck out his tongue at me and grinned.

"You should watch where you're going," I brought in his lunch – a grilled cheese sandwich that Captain Falcon had left for Ness. I felt a little bad for the kid, but I could easily say that Yoshi ate it, because he usually did when morsels were left laying on the kitchen counter. I opened the cage, and delivered Spinni his sandwich. I watched him wolf it down, frowning.

"Am I starving you?" Spinni brushed some crumbs from his muzzle.

"No," he said, his mouth half-full, "but I am still growing, aren't I?" Spinni finished off the last bit with a snap of his jaw, much more like a crocodile than a mouse.

"Besides," the ninja continued, "I never tasted anything this good in a while." I raised my eyebrows.

"They're just grilled-cheese sandwiches," I said, appalled. I mean, cheese is great and all, but it's not the greatest – at least in my opinion. Spinni had other ideas about food.

"Well," Spinni leaned back in his wheel, fingering another dart, "we never really had a good cook, so I would sometimes 'go out' for dinner," We, as in the Squeak Squad. I nodded, but knew he couldn't see me. Yet another question plagued me, and now there wasn't anything to stop it. I deemed it a simple, friendly question.

"What's life like?" I asked him. Spinni faced towards the sound of my voice, suddenly alert. He gave me a frown, his eyebrows furrowing. Sitting up straight, he tilted his head to the side and asked,

"What do you mean, 'life'?" He sounded slightly offended by my question. I winced, noticing my mistake a little late. I mean, what kind of life was a thief's? He must have lived on the run, hated and despised. And he's only a kid.

"I mean," I said, trying to rephrase my question, "How's..." I tried thinking of a different question.

"How's Daroach?" I quickly recovered my stance, "What's he like?" Spinni frowned at me, and raised an eyebrow.

"What does that have to do with my life?" he asked, giving his ear a small scratch with a mere paw. The ninja's voice seemed a little taut, so I merely shrugged. There was silence – oh wait, he can't see me.

"I dunno," I sighed lamely, "Just thought." Spinni gave me a suspicious look, frowning before he answered,

"I rarely hear from Daroach in person – he's real quiet. I usually get his orders from Doc. I think Doc speaks to Daroach the most, unless Storo is somehow talking to Daroach more than I think he does." Spinni then scratched his chin, thinking more before continuing, "There was this one time when I talked to him, though. It was about his family – and that was just all." My ears pricked up to this new information; ever since I saw Daroach's picture, I wanted to know what his family was like. Ah, Spinni would say I'm really nosy, but who cares? I sure don't (obviously).

"What did he say?" I leaned closer, to better hear what the yellow ninja had to say. Spinni simply readjusted his shades, and frowned. We sat in silence for a long time, him pondering carefully, and me listening anxiously. I gave the stool a few impatient taps with my fingers.

"Well?"

"That's really personal info, Pikachu," Spinni sniffed, tilting his nose into the air, "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"If he ever comes," I muttered under my breath. Of course, with his super-sharp hearing sensory, Spinni heard me. He gave a small sigh, and kicked aside a fold of blankets in his wheel.

"I hope he does," the ninja admitted softly, "or at least someone." I raised my eyebrows, surprised to hear this response from him. But then again, thinking through my own experiences, I could understand. The two of us were abandoned by our families to fend for ourselves in this world, with no one really loving us. Sometimes, sitting in that rat cage, I felt as though that if I disappeared from the world, no one would ever care or even know that I no longer existed. Well, maybe the shopkeeper because he would have to carry out my body or worry about someone thieving me, but that's not the point. In Spinni's perspective, maybe he hoped that someone would notice that he was actually gone – someone that actually would care. The world's a lonely place when no one knows you're alive. I gave Spinni a small smile that he hopefully felt.

"What's so bad about us?" I asked him, "I mean, Kirby is not beating you up or anything, is he?"

"No," he laughed, and then continued, his voice trailing, "it's just that for a while I wished I was... Well, I kinda wished I had friends." Inside me, I felt offended. I frowned and gave a snort.

"What's wrong with us?" I snapped. Spinni only grinned back, apologetically.

"There's the small bit of history between Kirby and me, and Yoshi is... Well..." Spinni looked for a word to describe my dinosaur friend nicely. But how can I blame him? Upstairs, Yoshi was perhaps spinning around on the ceiling fan, judging by Kirby's distant scoldings for him to get down.

"Weird?" I suggested.

"Yeah, weird," Spinni agreed. I realized that he had made excuses for all but one person.

"What about me?" I demanded, with a slight attitude. Instead of getting nasty like he usually did, the ninja adjusted his shades and merely grinned back, shrugging.

"You're okay, I guess," he said, "Super nosy, but okay. It's just..." Spinni trailed off again.

"What?"

"You're keeping me locked in a cage," the yellow rat finally stated blatantly, "It makes me feel like I'm in juvy or something." Now I could understand that – I never liked the shopkeeper back from my pet store days for locking me in a cage. Looking at Spinni, I realized that he had no where to go, really. He's just looking for a friend, even if it got him into one of the most notorious bands of thieves in the galaxy. So, I crossed over to the door of the cage, and with my electrical powers, I remove the lock and chains. Spinni's ears pricked up as he heard the metallic pieces fall to the ground with a ringing serenade.

"There," I said, putting my hands to my hips, "happy now?" Shocked, the yellow ninja sat numbly in his wheel.

"You can go," I told him, standing aside. Cautiously, the rat sniffed, slowly approaching the door out of the cage. He faced my direction, his shades glinting.

"That's it?" he asked, almost timidly.

"Yeah, I had my song and dance," I answered nonchalantly, nodding. He raised an eyebrow.

"No more questions?"

"No more questions," And Spinni, giving me one last glance, followed my scent trail up the stairs and out the door. When I reached Kirby's room, he wasn't anywhere to be seen, and my pink friend had a questioning look on his face.

"Seriously Pikachu?" he said to me, "You let him go, like that?" I didn't really know what to think about it. I was just drifting indifferently, and somewhat emptier – or fuller. Spinni was an okay guest, and my head filled with questions, wondering if he actually made it back to the Squeak Squad safely. So, I merely shrugged, not knowing how to answer. There's the fifth thing – I let Spinni free.

Yoshi indulged us with a tea party in Kirby's museum of dead things – a formal tea party complete with several stuffed animals dressed in gaudy pink garments. Being one who liked to dress up, Kirby took about three hours to finally arrive. By then, the tea was cold. I, for one, was grouchy because Yoshi insisted waiting for the puffball.

"Hey guys," Kirby greeted us, tipping his tall hat before taking a seat next to a teddy bear, "sorry to keep you waiting," I gave a sharp laugh and crossed my arms.

"What were you doing?" I snorted, "I swear to you you're worse than a preppy high schooler when it comes to outfits."

"Well, I had to pick a spray paint for skin color, first," Kirby stated matter-of-factly, "That took up a bit of time,"

"Obviously," I interrupted, muttering under my breath. Kirby stuck out his tongue at me and continued.

"And then I had to pick out a hat – that took a while, too."

"As it always does," I muttered, and drank my cold tea, "It's gotta be dinner time around now." Kirby inhaled a cookie, not minding to my comments. For a while, we sat in silence, munching on cookies, when Kirby broke the silence.

"Why did you let Spinni go, anyways?" Again, I didn't know what I should say.

"I guess I felt kind of guilty," I answered him finally, shrugging, "Besides, it's almost school time again." Recently, I had rediscovered time, and according to the calendar, there was only one and a half weeks left of school. It made me sad, but what have I really done? Not much, so I guess it wasn't much of a grievance. Just then, my ears pricked up to the sound of the doors opening. Looking over, I saw Ness floating over, light as paper, holding a phone in one hand. Landing neatly next to a stuffed pony, he held out the phone to me.

"It's for you, Pikachu," he said, and drifted away, using his magical prowess. Wondering who would be calling me in the first place, I hesitantly answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"It's me," said a somewhat familiar voice on the other end of the line. It was restrained and hushed – in the background, I heard other people talking. I shook my head, not believing what I was hearing.

"Spinni?" I asked.

"Shh!" the ninja hushed me, "People can hear you – they don't know I'm a criminal, yet." I was shocked. Where was he? How did he call us? And how is he using a public phone without attracting the police?

"Wha-where are you?" I asked, lowering my voice to an urgent whisper. There was a pause.

"That's my question," Spinni finally answered. I expected that someone was giving him a funny look – hopefully, no one noticed his signature shades.

"Hey," Spinni's voice came through the phone again, "Is... Well..."

"What?"

"Can I come back?" I flipped head over heels in my mind. What was this guy thinking – I mean, he was complaining about being captive several hours earlier, wasn't he?

"Already?" Was all I could say. There was a small sigh.

"Please?" His voice sounded anxious, "I don't know where else to go – the only place I know around here is yours."

"Wait a minute," I said, switching the phone to my other hand, "how did you get here in the first place?"

"Where?"

"Here, as in my house. How did you get here from wherever you came from?" Silence answered.

"Please?" came the desperation again.

After that conversation, I found out that Spinni only made it as far as downtown before he was finding himself in hot water. When he arrived back outside Kirby's bedroom window, he was covered in black soot, with scraps of potato sacks around his body. But his questioning sight didn't change anything about the event.

Sixth thing - Spinni came back.

***

I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go on a walkabout. Outside was cool and clear, and the stars shone bright over head, casting a bluish tone all over the field. Grass and leaves crackled and crunched under my feet as I walked through the night. Inside me, I felt a huge conflict going on.

"I hate being normal," I said aloud, to no one in particular. Around me, crickets chirped and the wind blew, causing the forest's canopy to rustle together. Emptiness. What was I going to do for the rest of my life? This? I wanted to capture the Squeak Squad because I wanted a challenge, so I wouldn't be bored. Who knows how many summers will pass on by like this one, with me doing nothing.

But I guess I'm wrong. I met an intergalactic criminal, Spinni, and befriended him. Most people don't even get to do that in their entire lifetimes. Even better, I _captured_ an intergalactic criminal notorious for escaping every crime scene clean. No one has ever caught a Squeak.

"Well, I guess I did something, then." I wandered on, pausing to look at the dark shadows that lay lurking under the eaves of the trees. All was quiet and peaceful – I felt calm now. Back to bed for me.

"Where can dat Spinni be?" a sudden voice came from the dark. Fear shot up my spine, and I crouched low in the long grass, hoping that I was unseen. In my gut, I had a feeling that this voice could belong to the police, or a Squeak. The police I can deal with easily – a fib on the top of my head would suffice – but a Squeak? Or even worse the rest of the Squeak Squad? There would be a band of fighters versus just one me. That, my friends, is not a good thing.

Crunches of leaves drew closer to my hiding spot. I shifted slightly and as quietly as I could. I tried my best to peer through the blades, but all I could see was the deep, dark forest. Shuddering, my breath grew quick.

"Storo, be sensible," there was a voice that sounded like it was spoken through an intercom, "he's inside the house." My fears have been confirmed. Great, how am I supposed to stand up to a guy probably five or six times my height, and twenty times heavier than I was? Storo could sit on me, for all I care. I shifted in the grass again, and saw glowing orbs of light, illuminating a UFO shape. If the neighbors looked out of their windows at this moment, they would be able to claim they have seen a UFO. However, it wasn't piloted by an alien – I had a good feeling that the dude speaking to Storo was his comrade Doc (because Storo definitely has alien homies).

"Quiet," a new voice hushed. It was a tone of solemnity, one of high order. Darn it – not only I have to go against a UFO pilot and a sumo wrestler by myself, there was the magician. I had a good feeling Daroach had come as well. Spinni got his wish – his buddies had come for him.

"Do ya tink that they gots him?" Storo asked dumbly again. I snickered to myself – I guess he was mainly composed of muscle, then.

"What was that?"

Oh snap, Daroach heard me. I shook like jello – what now? Silently, he was floating over to my patch of grass, larger than life. The light from the stars caught the smooth surface of the gem on the end of his scepter, causing it to gleam maliciously. With him and the other two, I would be _creamed_.

Damn it, I'm the one who stood up to a killer general and raging bear! There is no reason I should be afraid of these guys!

Just then, cold metal prodded my crouched position, prompting me to stand up. Dignified, I stood up, glaring at Daroach full in the eye, not willing to let his height overcome me. His golden eyes flashed, almost like a brand of fire being stoked.

"Boss," Storo stumbled over to look at me, "it's-a little muncher, ain't it cute?" He had a sneer in his voice that I didn't like.

"Now that it's seen us," Doc hovered over, his strobe light landing on me, "we have to do something about it." Daroach raised his head, keeping his eyes on me. All of them loomed down on me, giving me the royal glare-down-the-nose.

"What is it, Doc?" Storo asked his counterpart.

It?

_IT?!_

"I am a _she_," I shouted at the three, feeling fury erupting from me like a volcano, "and my name is Pikachu!" Before the even had the chance to laugh, my electricity vamped up to high frequency, and I used it to grab Doc's metallic ship. I spun around, thrusting my arm out, sending the UFO spinning into a tree. It crashed, toppling over to the side. I breathed, and looked back up to the other two.

"You guys better get it damn straight," I warned them, clenching my fists, "Or else you'll think twice about messing with me again." Daroach's eyes narrowed, and a fire was brandished from within them.

"Do you even know who you are talking to, little girl?" he hissed, gripping his scepter.

"Do _you_ know who you're talking to?" I snapped back, stomping the ground. I didn't give a crap, not a notion concerning his super magical abilities. There was no way this guy was going to treat me as an inferior. With that said, I lunged for him.

But when I was just about to sink my claws into that smug face of his, Daroach smirked and vanished. From behind me, Storo slammed my body into the ground with his huge fist.

"Not so high and mighty now, huh?" the fat, blue rat jeered. I groaned, removing myself from the dirt. Before me, I only saw another bus bully from school. My blood pounded from inside me, and electricity swarmed around my fist. I ran up to that fatso and threw him a pay-off, sending him flying up into the air. Jumping up, I spun around, my tail hitting him full in the stomach. It was a much more powerful impact than I expected, because Storo flew far, collapsing on top of Doc's wreck fifty yards away. Landing neatly on my feet, using my arms to steady myself, I then glanced up at Daroach. He faced me now, the wind causing his cape to billow around him.

"There," I spat, "I took them out in two hits – what are _you _going to do now?" The leader's eyes glinted from the darkness under his hat, and he smirked.

"You fool," he said quietly. The rodent turned slightly to the side, and produced a hammer from nowhere, spinning it in his paw. Three stars wheeled chaotically round the head, flashing brightly. He thrusted his weapon at me, and a star hurtled my way. I leaped to the side, and the star collided into the earth. Dirt flew up into the air as the star retreated back to its minions, orbiting the hammer. Again, the leader swung his hammer, and a star flew at me. This time, I felt something strike me in the gut, and I was flung back. Before me, Daroach disappeared, and I felt yet another strike hit me on the back of my head. I flew in a different direction, and again I was struck. I was being tossed about like a rag doll by the leader.

"HEY!" I fell to the ground as Daroach's attention was caught by someone knew. I saw his paw clench tight around his hammer.

"Remember me?" It was Kirby, with his fighter band wrapped around his head. How did he know I was in trouble? From beside me, Daroach hissed,

"Do I need to?" Kirby adjusted his band and glared with his starry, blue eyes.

"You better," and the puffball lunged into action. He ran towards Daroach before the rodent could react and threw three punches. Quickly spinning in the air, Kirby delivered three kicks, and a slash downwards. He touched the ground before going airborne again, performing an uppercut, planting it firmly under Daroach's jaw. Just then, the rodent lashed out, this time using his scepter, and flung Kirby to the side. The pink puffball landed in the grass with two feet, but Daroach was already on to me. I was ready for him, and Kirby was going to help me.

"I've got cho back, Boss!" Storo yelled to his leader. Kirby spun to face him.

Okay, maybe he wasn't going to help me.

Daroach spun his scepter casually in his paws, seemingly unconcerned with Kirby's attack. I watched his ruby-tipped cane spin round and round.

"What is this, a show?" I jeered at the leader. Daraoch gave me a smug grin.

"Might as well be one," he answered lightly, and then pointed the ruby end of his scepter directly at me. A cold wind rushed towards me, and rolled to the side just as a beam of icy particles rocketed over. On the ground, Daroach rushed in, swinging his hammer, landing blows that cuffed the sides of my head. Now that he was in close range, I let loose my energy. Electricity exploded from my epicenter, and Daroach was flung down to the ground. I stood up straight, eying Daroach as he raised his body into the air again.

"Fool," he spoke to me in his quiet, deathly voice, "don't you know it takes much more than a few blows to strike us down?"

"Me too," I answered him coolly, and I charged at him again. This time, Daroach used neither scepter or hammer – he slashed at me with his sickled paws, scarring my side. I sliced him with my tail, and he jabbed at my stomach. His claws slashed across my face, freshly opened scars burning. Just scratches, I told myself. Now, I'll give him something that _really_ hurts; jumping clear out of the range of his sabers, I dug my claws into the fine tissues of his ear. Suddenly, Daroach yelped and used both of his paws to rip me from my hold and throw me into a tree, a paw still tight on my neck. With his other paw, Daroach brandished his hammer. Eyes shining with embers sparking from deep within, he grinned.

"In the end," he reduced his voice to whisper, as he leaned in, his hat hanging menacingly over his eyes, "you lose." He raised his hammer for the KO.

_FWING!_ Something speedy and metallic spun through the air behind Daroach, and its momentum slammed into the rodent's hammer, tipping the starry cane out of his paws. As it clattered onto the dirt, Daroach turned around.

Spinni held a shuriken between the digits of his paws.

"It's Spinni, Boss!" Storo called out, seeing the yellow ninja. Stunned, Daroach let go of me, and I fell to the ground. My neck regained feeling.

"Spinni," his leader was at loss for words, "why?" Spinni adjusted his shades with a paw and sniffed.

"They mean no harm," the yellow rodent answered, "I'm still here, and not in prison. Trust me, Boss." The gray leader's face became contorted, trying to register what his minion was saying.

"With him?" he cried, pointing his scepter towards Kirby. Spinni shrugged.

"I'm still not in prison," he replied simply. Daroach's grip on his scepter became tight – I can tell that this guy was getting really mad. So was Storo – he loaded a punch to throw at unsuspecting Kirby, one I swear could knock the poor puffball to the moon.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Before any of us could react, a green blur charged by from the house and slammed headlong into Storo's side. The fatso was propelled into the trees, knocking down even the tall and sturdy. Standing in his place was a stiffly grinning dinosaur. Dumbly, Daroach stared at Yoshi. Then he turned to Spinni.

"You betrayed us?" Spinni looked taken aback.

"No!" he cried in defiance, but how was Daroach was supposed to believe that? Instead of venting his fury towards the yellow ninja, the gray leader rounded on me. Malignantly, he pointed his scepter at me, and said,

"You'll regret this," The ruby began to glow a bright cyan color as ice dust swirled around it's end. In a few moments, I will become a Popsicle. What is Kirby doing? What is Spinni doing? Are they going to help me?

Suddenly, I had a rather remote idea.

"Ring ring, Yoshi!" I called out to my dinosaur friend, "the phone's for Daroach!" Catching on, Kirby tossed his phone to me, already calling to Yoshi's iLuigi. Just as I caught it, Daroach fired a concentrated, powerful beam towards me. I held out the iLuigi, it's LED screen opened to my offender, and squeezed my eyes shut.

At that moment, Yoshi held his phone to Daroach so the gray leader could receive it, LED screen open to the rodent.

**BAM!** The beam was sucked into Kirby's iLuigi and shot out of Yoshi's, right into Daroach's back. He fell forward, collapsed on the ground.

Trembling, I glanced up to see Spinni. The yellow ninja, seeming to meet my gaze, looked away, and shook his head.

Three intergalactic criminals out cold on the forest floor. What to do with them now?

* * *

**It gets worse every chapter, huh? Nowadays, I don't have much time to write my chapters (in fact, I stayed up til three in the morning to finish this one), so bear with me. Those who still stayed with the KPY through all of these long periods of silence, I want to thank you. I most seriously appreciate your support. Thank you.  
**


	27. Summer's End

**Summer's End**

_Thunk!_

When I descended into Kirby's basement, the first thing I saw was Spinni chucking darts into the wall angrily. Not the dartboard – the _wall_.

"What do you think you're doing?!" I cried, grabbing his wrist as he was about to throw another dart. He didn't look towards me, but instead his expression furrowed, set firm and sour. I looked back towards the cage across the room, where the rest of his Squeak Squad buddies were. They were whispering to each other, backs turned on their ninja. Daroach had his red hat tilted low over his eyes, and the collars of his cloak pulled around his face high, masking it. Storo's blue bulk was hunched over, tiny ears twitching. Doc merely sat outside of his UFO ship, looking rather vulnerable and tiny. I glanced at Spinni, back at the cage, and measured the distance between them – an awkwardly long distance. I sighed, and let go of his wrist.

Spinni then threw his dart at the dartboard – a perfect bulls-eye. Somewhat satisfied, he plunked himself down on the ground and sniffed distinctly. It was clear that the ninja was very upset because now the Squeak Squad thought that he had betrayed them to us. It couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?

Wait a moment – let me put this into terms _I_ understand. If Kirby betrayed me to another guy, say like this big, super powerful guy, then I would be furious with him. In fact, I will personally fry his pink skin because he broke our vow. THE vow.

Okay – now I understand. But what can I do now to repair this broken connection? This was virtually Spinni's family, and now they had dismissed him. Same kind of feeling I had when Link disowned me. It hurt. It probably hurts even more for Spinni, because he has been with these guys longer than I have with Link. I glanced over to the rest of the Squeaks.

"It's all your fault," a mutter came from the yellow ninja, slumped against wall. I raised my eyebrows, taking offense.

"My fault?"

"Yeah," Spinni snapped, folding his arms tightly, "if you didn't get yourself into a mess with them in the first place, then they wouldn't hate my guts." Hate is a strong word – could the other Squeaks really hate Spinni for what happened two nights ago?

"Well," I retorted, "then you shouldn't have interfered – that's what made them mad at you in the first place." Another thought occurred in my head. If Spinni loved his buddies that much, then why did he come and save my head?

"Why did you do it?" words fell from my mouth. Spinni's ears flicked.

"Do what?" His head was bent down, as if he was studying the floor.

"You know," I continued, "prevent Daroach from hitting me with his hammer." I watched the yellow ninja sigh, his shoulders rising and falling. He lifted his head in my direction, and gave me a solemn "I hate you" look, before turning away. I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue. Fine – be that way. That's not how you solve problems, so I'm gonna solve one for you. I stood up straight, and strode over to the cage across the room.

"Am I interrupting anything?" The Squeaks looked over to me at the bars with mixed varieties of anger. Storo's was certainly obvious, for he cracked his ginormous knuckles and made a growling noise. Doc's expression didn't reveal anything – in fact, I don't think he cared much anymore. Kirby had told me he was a cool guy, and I guess Doc was, looking at him now. If the old rodent felt any anger, it certainly didn't show through his swirly, green spectacles. I shifted my gaze to Daroach. The gray leader's face was placid, his fur neatly groomed with his great, red had dipping over his right eye. But, looking deep into his amber eyes, I could see that he was _livid_. It almost scared me, but I stood my ground, not wanting to appear daunted. I must live up to my meager reputation I had built for myself from the skirmish.

I can assume this right now that Daroach is gonna be a real pain in the butt.

"Yes," the gray leader answered tersely. Doc, on the contrary, was more receptive.

"No, not at all," Something about the tone in his weathered voice made me feel at home – no wonder Spinni liked him. Meanwhile, Daroach shot him a glance full of pointy daggers. The old man paid no mind; he patiently waited for me to continue on what I had to say. Clearing my throat, I called the Squeaks to focus on me.

"Hey guys," I began, my hands making apologetic gestures, "I think we started off with a bad foot. Sorry for beating you guys up." Doc nodded. Storo harrumphed in response. Daroach remained absolutely silent, staring at me with that burning glare. I pretended not to feel it scorch my fur. Maybe it wasn't a great idea to prod his already damaged pride.

"Anyways," I continued on, twiddling my thumbs, "You're in good hands here. I'll make sure you guys are kept comfy and fed – and that Kirby doesn't come and kill you and all." I added, holding up a finger for some emphasis. There was a snort from Storo, but other than that, my audience was quiet. My thoughts jumped to Spinni, who sat lonesome at the wall. Something has to be done about that.

"Another thing – see your comrade and buddy Spinni back there?" I jerked my thumb towards the yellow ninja, "why are you guys shunning him, anyways?" I glanced over my shoulder, and saw Spinni looking in my direction, head tilted to the side. If he could see me, I would have nodded. I owed the ninja one, for saving my sorry arse from Daroach's hammer. Turning back to the remaining Squeaks, I waited for a reply, or some kind of confession. It was silent; the silence reigned the room until Doc said,

"Well, Daroach says that the Squeak Squad will not tolerate traitors."

Don't you love how that it's, "Daroach says" instead of, "we say"? To make my job easier, I decided to attack the heart of the problem head-on, without dilly-dally. I looked at Daroach directly into his flaming gaze.

"Hey you," I said to him. Daroach gave me a mild look, his amber eyes burning blood fire. He tilted his head so he looked down on me slightly.

"Me?" he asked in a mocking tone. With a delicate claw, he laid it on his chest – a gesture to himself. I sighed impatiently; as I thought, this guy was a big, fat, knucklehead. I put my hands on my hips, akimbo style, and glared my own daggers.

"Yeah you," I said, "I want to talk to the boss. Are you the boss? I think so." I raised a finger and gestured for Daroach to walk his butt over here. Or float his butt – same difference. To my annoyance, the gray leader only leaned back and smiled to himself.

"Daroach?" Spinni's voice came from the other side of the room, "I wouldn't do that if I were you..."

"Huh – WHA!" I was on him in an instant, grasping the throat clasp of his cloak, and the bell that hung from it jingled once before it was silenced. I tugged the king of thieves closer to my face so he can read my lips.

"Look smarty-pants," I spat in his face, "if there was one thing I absolutely _hate_, it's people making fun of me to the point where it's not even funny."

"You," I continued, shaking him, "weren't even funny to begin with. Now, we're gonna have a little talk – or else I'm turning you in to the cops." That shut him up. He sighed deeply, and shook me off stiffly, giving me an abhorrent, death glare down his nose. My gaze held his, staring him down.

Daroach blinked, frowned slightly, and looked away.

Hah – I win. I looked to Storo and Doc, both of whom sat silently as the two of us sparred with our eye-daggers. Now, I kinda wanted this conversation to be a little private, so I gestured the other two minions to remove themselves from the area and engage in some other activity. Doc retreated to a pink, plastic castle, carrying a notebook from his UFO ship. Storo went to sleep on the couch; judging by his snores, he sounded as though he couldn't hear us very well. Hands behind my back, I waited for them. Once they were into position, I looked back up to Daroach, raising an eyebrow. I was open to ask the gray leader any question I wanted – how he liked his pancakes, to his favorite color, to why he only steals Aniram's crafts. But I try not to be a selfish person.

"Okay," I started in a measured tone, "what's wrong with Spinni? Why are you treating him like... Like an infidel?" Daroach raised a paw to his hat, lightly skimming the red brim with his long claws.

"Doc has already made that clear," the floating rat answered curtly, "We don't want members of our little 'family' to become flirtatious with potential threats."

"Flirtatious?!" Spinni cried, "You kidding me?!" Daroach ignored Spinni's denials, and tapped his scepter in a casual but elegant manner. I was still fed up by how the rat acted like he was so high and dignified.

"Family?" I questioned, putting my hands to my hips, "Then you have one _really_ messed up family." I saw Daroach's grip on his scepter tighten significantly. I had hit a nerve, and since he has been pissing me off, I am going to return the favor. I didn't give him a chance to retort by continuing,

"If you can't even support each other, then that's really, really sad. Usually, family members look out and keep together in times of need." I raised a finger to point accusingly at the criminal, "_You_, on the other hand, _shuns_ Spinni instead of accepting him back graciously. That's what a _real_ family does." Hearing, Daroach dangerously lowered himself to the ground so that the tips of his hind paws brushed the floor, glaring at me from deep under his great, red hat. The gray leader leaned forward, his fiery temper flickering in his eyes.

"You know nothing, do you little girl?" he answered quietly, "Families aren't always the soft and warm amenities of life that you take for granted." It sounded like a threat on the outside. But listening for an underlying meaning, I thought of this: Daroach himself has also been kicked out of his household. His family was probably a demanding and corrupted one, too. What Daroach was aiming for was perhaps a dramatic effect where I would be wowed to silence, and sympathize him. It's just that he doesn't know that I have been there, and done that too. My mom was _very_ clear about it. What a crazy woman – she sent me to a shop to decide my fate, and who knows what terrible thing she did to my brother. My mother had a freaking axe! Yes, I knew that families can also be a bad thing, too.

"That is why I said, 'usually'," was my reply to his, "I may not know very much, but that doesn't mean that you have to treat your friends this way."

***

If nosiness ever bothered Spinni, his level of tolerance would seem to be longer than Daroach's by several million lightyears. Daroach has no patience for anything except for carefully studying his treasure trove. That gluttonous idiot – I don't know why on earth I held him to such a high esteem. But it is fun to annoy him, in which I do on a daily basis. With school coming up, Daroach has some higher hopes for a brighter day in the future because I will be gone longer. For now, though, all of hell had broken loose.

As for the other two, Doc and Storo, they were the first to accept Spinni back. Daroach also accepted, but I think it made no difference on Spinni's part because Daroach never really talked to him. Or anybody apparently. According to Doc, most orders from the gray leader were carried to Doc, and then to the rest of the Squeaks. Out of the three of them, Doc knew Daroach the most and for the longest time. He confided in me that he had once been Daroach's babysitter. At that point, I had burst out laughing, trying to imagine what Daroach looked like when he was young and my age.

"Then how come you guys switched rolls?" I asked the old doctor, rolling on my heels, "Daroach has more control over you than you have over him." Doc's green mustache twitched from to side to side as he thought about it.

"I have no clue, Pikachu," he answered honestly. I didn't press any further, because Doc was a nice guy. Storo was a different matter. It's not just because he was only mean – no, I had to press further because he would only give me vague answers. What a knucklehead, and a dumb-butt. I have _nothing_ against dumb people, but it's rather irritating when I have to explain every other word meaning for every question I ask. Okay, it's really not that bad, but it still irks me. All I got from Storo is that he likes food. A _lot_ of food. I'll keep that in mind for dinner...

From Spinni, Doc, and Storo combined, I still haven't solved the real mystery of the Squeaks. Why the art pieces? Why so specific? And why not sell them?

"Do you sell them?" I ask. Doc and Spinni glanced at each other, both of their glasses glinting from the lamp.

"No," Spinni replied first, "you already know that one."

"Never," Doc answered. Why use such an affirmative word?

"Never?"

"Never,"

Well, it seemed like there was only one option left for me. And I don't think Daroach likes it too much. Doc, along with Spinni, had been deemed "friendly" by the KPY, so they were entrusted to walk freely in the mansion just as long as no one else sees them. Usually, they would go outside to enjoy the expansive field, and that's exactly where they went when I entered the desolate cage of Storo and Daroach.

"Knock knock," I greeted them. There was a distinctive sigh from Daroach, who sat by himself in the corner. It seemed as though he had been taking a little nap before I came around. I entered the cage, and approached the gray leader. Hearing me, the rat raised his head and folded his red cloak over him.

"What do you want now?" he sighed, closing his amber eyes. It was almost as if he was already tired from my question-answer sessions. I sat down next to him, my back against the bars like him. Waggling my feet from side to side, I remained casual. It's not as though I was an investigator – I was just a kid with childish curiosity. What does he have to be afraid of?

"Why do you only collect Aniram pieces?" I asked him. Daroach's eyes opened slowly, and he stared straight forward. I waited for an answer, but the rat gave none.

"Why don't you sell them?" I fired another question, and awaited an answer. There was none.

"Okay," I continued, hoping to get somewhere, "where do you keep all that stuff?" Nothing. This is really starting to annoy me – can't he hear me?

"Are you going to say anything?" Silence. Oh c'mon! I have to at least get _something_ from this lump of fur.

"Do you like cheese?" No response.

"You're stupid," No response.

"You're ugly," No response.

"Galagga-shnagawa," No response.

"Oh-kee-day 'n' potato," Daroach blinked, and glanced towards me, eyebrow raised. Wow, out of everything I have said, he responds to _that?_ Oh well, now that I finally determined Daroach was actually alive, I started back up at the top.

"Why do you only collect Aniram pieces?"

***

Several days earlier, I remember I had been talking to Doc and Spinni outside in the field. Yoshi was plucking daisy blooms in the field, making himself a tasty snack. Kirby was making sure our dinosaur friend didn't wander into Captain Falcon's lawn again. It had been sunny, but slightly crisp as autumn started to enfold over the sleepy neighborhood. It felt good, and I was staring up into the wide blue sky. As the wispy cirrus clouds drifted in and out of my vision, I was contemplating how to get past the silent barrier that kept Daroach carefully guarded. Somehow, I knew that he had to be softer on the inside. But right now, he was hard as a stone wall that hosted a flaming furnace on the inside.

"Why do you want to know so bad?" Spinni probably smelled my frustration. I looked over to the yellow ninja.

"You're my age," I told him, "I'd thought you'd understand." Spinni chuckled, shaking his head.

"Well you're a weirdie," he said. I frowned at his answer.

"You're nice," I grumbled.

"Aren't I always?" he grinned at me, and leaped over to me, bounding on all four of his feet. Doc was merely watching all of us, sitting peacefully atop a boulder. Through his swirly glasses, he made sure nothing bad happened. He called his dozing a practice for his babysitting skills. Although the doctor was old, he acted young. I didn't think he was around eighty years old until he told me. Before that, Spinni, him, Kirby, Yoshi, and I were playing an extremely lively game of stuffed animals. Doc had a stuffed animal version of me, and together he and I (I was Kirby) flew around the house in a race. Doc was a cool guy, and age wasn't stopping him from being young. Age didn't stop him from being smart, either. That rodent guy was absolutely brilliant – he made me a car type thing out of scrap metal, bicycle tires, and some cardboard from scratch. He told me that if he had the chance, he would give me one of his prized vehicles. But for now, he had to keep himself from being caught by the police. His old home, where all of his worldly inventions were kept, was carefully surveyed by crime investigators.

That afternoon, Spinni and I walked over to Doc to rest. The old doctor had just made some fresh lemonade out of a lemon squeezer that he built himself. The drink's sweetness washed over the other pleasant feelings like icing on a really good strawberry shortcake. I remember looking up at the swirly glasses, and asking,

"Do you build stuff for Daroach?" The doctor tilted his head to the side, his spectacles falling down his nose a small bit. Over its brim, I saw a glimpse of brilliant, lime colored eyes.

"I used to," he said, his calming, aged voice answering me, "but they were mainly hand tools,"

"For what?" The doctor grinned sheepishly behind his green mustache.

"Can't say," Doc replied, "Daroach wouldn't like it,"

"Aw c'mon!" I whined, "why can't you tell me?" Doc lifted a pencil from behind his ear and used it to tap my head.

"I respect other people's privacy," Smiling, the mustachioed doctor sighed. Spinni looked in his direction.

"That guy is SO secretive, though," Spinni complained. Doc chuckled.

"He is," he agreed.

"Was he always like that?" I asked Doc, since I knew that Doc knew Daroach from when the leader was young. Doc's smile faltered slightly.

"He was, sort of," Doc sighed, "He was a strange kid. He rarely played with his siblings. Daroach was a loner kind of guy – the only person he was really comfortable around was his dad." His dad?

"Have you met his dad?" I asked the doctor.

"Frankly no," Doc said, frowning, "That's why I was hired to babysit him. His mom and dad got divorced, and his dad left. His mom never really liked Daroach, because he didn't act 'proper', so naturally she didn't want to deal with him."

"Proper?" Spinni had asked.

"His mom's family were still old fashioned from back when people used to enslave our kind," Doc explained, "she was raised with that kind of attitude that we were still supposed to be bred like pets."

"Ouch," I commented, thinking deeply. Doc nodded.

"Yes," Doc agreed, "his family was very corrupt. At one point, I stopped watching over him because my father was very ill. When I came back, Daroach had ran away. His mother had banished him for who knows what."

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the gray leader.

"So that's why he's so stiff," Spinni whistled, raising his eyebrows, "man, what a load of crap."

Kirby had then called me over, saying he had to go and shop for school supplies. I waved Spinni and Doc goodbye before hopping into the car with Ness and Link. Driving off, I thought about Daroach, wondering if I could do something to change his black, hard heart. It was a mission deemed impossible even by Doc. The most heart-warming tampering never broke the gray leader. But I had went through the same kind of family experience, and I came out fine. I understood his pain, and I wanted to fix it.

***

"Why do you only collect Aniram pieces?" Daroach now turned to face me entirely, his expression austere.

"That's none of your business," he answered tersely. I gave him a hard look from under my brows, folding my arms.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" I pouted. Daroach was quick to respond this time.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he retorted, "You just keep on coming back with the same questions every single time." I smiled at him.

"I'm a kid – deal with it," Daroach only huffed, and pulled on his great, red hat. As his paw rose to tug on it, I noticed something very, _very_ disturbing.

"WHERE'S YOUR ARM?" I cried out, falling backward onto my bum in surprise and shock. I held a shaking finger pointing at his hovering paw, unattached to the rest of his body. After all of this time I have seen him, I have never really noticed this peculiar detail before until now. For the first time, I saw a genuine smile play on the gray leader's face, which scared me even more. Daroach smiling? Impossible!

"Oh?" his tone was of mild surprise, coming from an amused half-smile, "Does this scare you?" Recovering from my initial shock, I felt unamused, and I folded my arms.

"Just a little bit," I answered crossly, "Now – what happened to your arm?" I could see that Daroach was fighting off an urge to smile as his grimness was etched in stone.

"I left it somewhere with the rest of my limbs."

"Ha ha, you're funny," I sniffed, "what really happened?" Silence followed. Why doesn't it surprise me that I receive no answer? Instead of waiting any longer, I decided to ask him something else.

"Do you miss your arms?" The gray leader frowned down upon me.

"That was a stupid question," was all he said. I, for one, didn't appreciate his response.

"Why do you have to be such a meanie head?" I scowled, and turned away.

"The world is full of meanie heads," was his answer, "deal with it."

The next day started the last week of summer vacation. After that started school. Kirby and I were spread out on the bedroom floor, sorting through new binders and pencils, organizing them into groups for specific classes.

"Dude," Kirby suddenly burst out, slamming down a stack of notebook paper, "I heard that the school got rid of D.O. Fenses." I felt the bottom drop out from underneath me. My arms slackened and pencils and highlighters fell from my grasp.

"No!" I gasped, "You're joking! Did they really cut the class?" I was hoping that Kirby would say that he was, because I enjoyed beating people up – especially the ones who picked on me and my friends. However, Kirby was solemn and slowly shook his head – or body. Anger bit my stomach, making me grab a pencil and chuck it down the open trapdoor. I heard it clatter in the quiet basement below.

"Damn!" I cried, clenching my fists, "How come?"

"Ever since that accident with Zelda occurred, the school was worried that the parent's would withdraw their kids from the school," Kirby explained ruefully, picking up a stray gluestick, "Parents were complaining to the principal that some of the classes weren't safe."

"But it was the parent's choice to let their kids go on that trip!" I argued in vain. Kirby sighed.

"I know," he groaned, "but that didn't stop them." Dropping the gluestick into a new pencil pouch, Kirby readied his supplies. I sat in front of him, struck dumb by the news. It made me mad – now how was I supposed to enjoy school? How was Link supposed to enjoy school? That class was the only class where we weren't confined to a desk of some kind, and where we moved about as freely as we wanted. I thought some more about how unfair the situation was. Wait – what am I complaining about? What happens to Mr. C, our instructor for D.O. Fenses?

"What about Mr. C?" I asked Kirby timidly, fearing the worst. I liked the man; he was a nice teacher, and a cool one. My pink friend only shrugged.

"I honestly don't know, Pikachu," he said, "but I can guess that he was let go,"

Beautiful. As if I didn't detest school enough. This year was going to be absolutely beautiful; I can hardly wait. Disgusted, I gathered the pencils scattered on the floor.

"Dang it," Kirby muttered to himself, "I'm missing a pencil."

"It doesn't matter, Kirby," I snorted, "You have two billion others."

"Twenty four others, not two billion," Kirby corrected in his matter-of-fact tone, "I want five pencils for each class, and I'm missing one."

"Does it really matter?" I sighed, rolling my eyes, "You are too nit-picky, you know." Just then, my pink friend swiped one of my pencils that I was about to pick up.

"Hey!" I cried, "give it back!" Kirby tossed it into his language arts pencil pouch. He looked up at me, and grinned mischievously.

"Does it really matter, Pikachu?" he echoed, "You have two billion others," I pursed my lips and gave him a death glare.

"Shut up," I said, sticking out my tongue at him. Instead of continuing the argument, I decided to simply go get another pencil. I think I'll go get the one I threw down the trapdoor, actually. Hopping down the stairs, I looked around for my prize. From my perch atop the stairwell, I saw no yellow, and nor I saw any yellow from the bottom. Funny, where could it have rolled off to? Then again, I could it have thrown it so hard that it shattered upon impact. No – my feet should have been covered by splinters by now. I gave up – I don't think I really should waste all this energy to look for a pencil.

It was only when I turned to leave when movement caught my eye. Silently, I looked to see Daroach sitting in his corner, only this time he was facing the bars of his cage, at the wall. Funny – I crept closer, wondering what he could be doing. My ears flicked – I heard soft, scratching noises from him. What was he doing with the wall? Closer still, I squinted to see. A paw was moving. A bit of pink eraser and yellow wood flashed.

Now I know where the pencil went.

"Would you like some paper?" I called out to the gray leader. Startled, Daroach turned around, holding the pencil in a delicate grip between two, slender claws. Behind him were the graphite lines that formed into a sketch still undetermined. We stared at each other for a long while – Daroach must have been struck dumb by my question, so I asked again.

"Would you like some paper, Daroach?" The gray leader blinked his amber eyes, wide with surprise. And then he cleared his throat, shaking off his shocked daze.

"That would be nice," His voice had lost some of its sharpness. Strange – I went upstairs to go get some paper. I was ready to pick up some of my notebook paper when it occurred to me that Daroach may want some unlined paper. Should I go walk across the house to get some from Ness, who I know has a whole bunch? I guess so – Daroach sounded nice enough. I walked out Kirby's bedroom.

"Where are you going?" Kirby called out after me, but I didn't answer. I scurried down the hall, past the living room, and then the kitchen, turned left at the dining room, up the stairs, and down another hall.

"Knock knock," I said, reaching Ness's door. It opened, and before me Ness hovered upside down, holding onto his cap.

"Wassup?" he greeted, "Is it dinner time already?" I tried not to be bothered by his precarious position in the air.

"No," I answered him, before continuing, "but can I have some of you white paper?"

"My copy paper?" Ness asked, raising his eyebrow. Copy paper?

"Is that white paper?"

"It doesn't have any lines on it,"

"Perfect," I said happily. Ness righted himself in the air, and floated down to the ground.

"How much do you want?" the boy asked, as he retreated back into his room. On his bed, I could see that his school supplies were piled up, already organized. And then I looked to his desk area, where his computer and printer were set up. Several packages of stacked paper were placed neatly beside it.

"Can I have a stack?" Ness raised both of his eyebrows.

"Okay," he complied, picking one of them up from the top of the pile, "but what are you using it for?" He brought it over, and set the heavy stack in my two arms.

"Oof! I'm just drawing stuff," Then, I hoisted up my load and walked my way back to Kirby's room. It just so happened that Yoshi had been using the bathroom by Ness's bedroom. He popped right in front of me.

"Hi Pikachu!" He exclaimed, as if he hadn't seen me for two thousand years. Before I could say anything back, he scooped me up and sprinted back to Kirby's room, accidentally knocking over Link on the way.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Sorry Link!"

Yoshi was so excited for nothing that he busted down Kirby's door. Literally. The now useless board fell to the floor, stunning Kirby. His eyes grew wide and he jumped.

"Holy cow Yoshi!" he cried, staring at the green dinosaur. I trembled in Yoshi's arms, almost having my face smashed. Yoshi, looking down, realized that he had done something wrong. He grinned sheepishly.

"Oopsh," and higgled. I fell from his grasp with my paper. Kirby eyed my prize questioningly.

"What's with the paper?" he asked. I began to haul it down the trapdoor.

"For drawing," I stated simply.

"For Daroach?" Kirby asked, dumbfounded, "Or does Storo draw?"

"For Daroach," I went down the stairs. I looked into the cage – Daroach was back at the wall again, drawing. I sighed – I thought he was waiting for me to bring him paper.

"Paper is here," I announced. The gray leader looked to me over his shoulder. His amber eyes lit on the paper clasped in my arms. Walking over, passing a snoring Storo, I dumped it next to him, and tore the packaging open. Daroach's eyes widened, almost with wonder, hovering over me. I looked up expectantly.

"Well," I said, gesturing to the white sheets, "here it is." As Daroach reached for the paper, pushing past me, I noticed the drawing on the wall, just behind him. Although it was an unceremonious portrait of Storo snoozing on the couch, the sketch blew me away. I could have sworn it was a photo. I looked back to Daroach, who had leaned back against the cage bars armed with half a stack worth of paper and a pencil.

I would have never guessed that he could draw so well. Thunderstruck, I sat down next to Daroach, who paid no mind. At the moment, he was tapping his chin with the eraser end of his pencil, thinking. Suddenly, the gray leader look down to me.

"What should I draw?" Was he really asking me something nicely? Holy peanut butter and jelly pajamas, something happened.

"Well?" Daroach demanded. I huffed, rolling my eyes.

"Why can't you think of something yourself?" I snorted, folding my arms. Daroach cocked his head to the side, his mouth pinched.

"Okay," he said, after giving some time for thought, "Fine, I will draw you."

"Really?" I was excited. Hopping up, I eagerly tried to look at the paper he was sketching on. Daroach held it out of my way, blocking me with his paw.

"No peeking," he told me sternly, but a smile played on his face.

"Fine, stinky-head," I pouted, sitting back down. I listened to the sounds of graphite scratching on paper as I looked to the drawing on the wall. Impatiently, I tapped my fingers on my arm, humming to myself before asking,

"Are done yet?"

"Almost," Daroach answered, his voice drawn out, "There. Done." Wondering what kind of beastly drawing of me he drew, I eagerly jumped up.

On the paper was a haphazardly drawn potato looking thing with googly eyes and buckteeth. Horrified, I looked up at the gray leader.

"That's me?" I pointed to his drawing. Daroach's face couldn't stay straight any longer, and he broke out into a grin.

"Yes," he said simply.

"That's terrible!" I complained grumpily, "That can't be me."

"But it looks just like you," the gray leader retorted, his voice teasing. I looked up to Daroach with wonder – he actually had a sense of humor. Who would have known?!

"Nooooooooo, it looks like you!"

"Me?" Daroach gasped in mock surprise.

"Yeah-huh!" I shot back, and Daroach snorted, seemingly amused. After twirling the pencil in his paws a few times, the gray leader returned to his quiet and peaceful state of drawing. Few, rounded strokes produced a perfect circle, and by using the side of his pencil lead, Daroach began shading in what turned out to be a glossy and realistic soap bubble. His amber eyes were fixed on the paper, clear and without any anger. I sat there with the Squeak Squad's big man, watching him draw. Halfway through finishing the bubble, the artist hesitated, pencil paused above the paper. Thinking through his thoughts, Daroach relocated his pencil tip to a space below his bubble, and began a rough sketch of a new figure. A few strokes defined a round head, another set showed arms tapering up, reaching for the bubble, and the rest of the small body was quickly drawn in. Just as Daroach was drawing the beginnings of what looked like a long, pointed ear, a figure appeared at the top of the trapdoor.

"Hey Pikachu," Kirby called down, "It's dinner time! Hurry up!" At the sound of "dinner", Storo jerked awake, looking around expectantly. I laughed aloud, watching him. Hopefully, there will be a lot of leftovers tonight.

* * *

**NEW RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I posted a new chapter within a week - hurrah!!!**

**... But it would be even better if this chapter didn't suck. ^^;  
**


	28. Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

**Don't Judge a Book by its Cover**

I read my new schedule as the bus taking me to school rumbled along the road. New teachers, somewhat new subjects; the one thing that was really different was that instead of enrolling in D.O. Fenses, I was assigned as a library assistant. Oh goody – it's time to show off my book-dusting skills. Hardly anyone ever goes to the library. I barely even have a notion that it exists. Oh well; at least Kirby is a library assistant, too. But ah, he might be researching on some more fossil crap. So boring – heck, school was boring.

Jason lost a few pounds, but he's just as nasty as ever, or even worse. I avoided his eyes as he swaggered to his prized seat at the back of the bus.

"Hey you! Get outta mah seat!" Apparently someone was occupying it. Half the students craned their necks to see what was going on. As I turned in mine, I caught Kirby's glance and shook my head- more bus drama. In Jason's seat a tall, lean guy with short, indigo hair lounged. Looking up to the bully with cold, dark eyes, he folded his arms.

"I don't think so, dammit," he replied lightly. I squinted – funny, I don't remember him from last year. Jason didn't either fro he demanded,

"Who the hell are you?" The bus grew silent as every passenger strained to hear what this stranger.

"I'm new," was all he said. Jason appeared to be fed up with this guy already. The new kid wasn't bowing to the master's will. Jason was used to having his way, and if someone didn't subject to his dominance at first, he made sure to fix that by getting his minions to pummel the defiant or by personally seeing to the job himself. Jason leaned closer, fist clenched tight.

"Do you know what happens to the new kids when they don't follow the rules around here?" Jason's threat was low and dark, causing some people to cringe. However there was no effect upon the newbie at all except for a blank response,

"Stop hissing at me – you sound like you're taking a piss." Jason stood up, surprised that the new kid hasn't taken his words to heart. I watched this bully fume, his face turning bright scarlet with anger. More people ducked – the last time this happened, someone got his face REALLY messed up.

"You think you're so cool," the beast roared, "But I - " and the bully let out a squeal three octaves higher than a chipmunk can sing as the stranger kicked his boot high up, right where the daylights don't shine. There was a collective "ooh!" from the audience, and some suppressed laughter. Jason knelt on the ground, and the indigo-haired guy glared coldly down upon him, folding arms tight. He warned, before turning away to stare out the bus window,

"You'll get no sympathy from me,"

So that was the story of the new kid. Speaking of which, many girls think he so super hot. The minute we sat down for English, all the girls were making googly eyes. Judging by the unimpressed look on his face, I assumed that he was just as unamused as I was. I don't understand this notion of crushes, and what they call "true love". It makes no sense to me at all, this "love". A guy and a girl would go out with each other, vowing to stick together till the are old and in rocking chairs. Then, a few days later, they would break up. The proper term for this strange human behavior is infatuation – there, I gave you a vocabulary word. Now study it and the test is next week.

Glancing across the room, I spotted Link and waved ecstatically. He rolled his eyes and waved, half amused. From behind me, a crumpled piece of paper hit my head. Without looking, I threw the paper ball back at Kirby with a soft _crunch!_ Just then, the teacher walked in, and everyone directed their attentions to her as she circled the room. One of her hands reached for a manila folder placed neatly at the center of a table positioned in front of the white board. Roll call. I never liked rol l call – I usually have problems with roll call because, like Kirby, I don' have a last name. Since the roll call goes by last name, first name, I end up being a blank space. And then, I would have to notify the teacher that I was indeed a student in that class before I had to call administration to fix the attendance sheets. But I think it's a little different this year, because the teacher was using first names in alphabetical order. Finally, someone up in the office did something about my predicament.

"Henry?"

"Here,"

"Ichabod?" The class erupted in laughs – every single one of us except for Blue-hair. He sat, his arms folded firmly across his chest.

"Ike,"

"Pardon me?" the teacher peered over her attendance sheets to look for the speaker, "Is Ichabod here?"

"Ike," Blue-hair corrected her, his voice terse. Students' mouths were now pinched tight, eyebrows raised high to the heavens. No one thought the name was funny anymore.

"Ike," the teacher repeated to herself, "Ike – nice to see you're here." She paused for a moment, making a small note in the corner before continuing down the list.

"Kevin?"

"Here,"

"Link?"

"Here,"

"Malon?"

"Here," a girl waved her hand, flashing a smile for every guy to see. Under my breath, I sighed. This was going to be a loooooooooooooooooooong day.

\\\

By the time lunch rolled around, I was bored to _death._ Even worse, I forgot my lunch at home. Groaning, I laid my head down on the table that smelled like someone had spilled mayonnaise on. Disgusting. Kirby prodded my arm.

"Hey sleepyhead,"

"I'm huuuuuuuuungry," I whined. I heard Kirby cluck his tongue.

"You forgot you're lunch, didn't you?" he asked, not sounding very surprised at all.

"Don't remind me," I sat up, and looked up at the ceiling. There was the random, red, plastic parachuter from las year. That was the same one Ness attached a mini water rocked to that he designed. He told me about how it shot up like lightning, and got stuck in the ceiling. No one really knows about it, or they just don't care. The parachuter dangled mournfully, head stuck in white plaster.

"Would you like some money?" Kirby brought my attention back down to earth.

"Huh?"

"Here," Kirby handed me a five dollar bill, "Go get something," My eyes opened wide.

"From the school lunch line" I gasped, dread filling me, "I might as well starve!" My pink friend exhaled sharply.

"Fine then," he said, "Starve." Just then, my stomach growled and terrible pain shot through my body. Glowering, I snatched the five dollar bill and ran over to the lunch line. Behind me was Ike, but he didn't seem to know that I was here. I felt a hard boot kick my back.

"HEY!" I snapped loudly, "Watch where you're going, man!" I had to look a long way up to meet his eyes. Ike looked on mildly.

"Sorry," was all he said. He's just like Daroach, except Daroach was more annoying. I shuffled through the line, slowly approaching the counter that towered over my head. Crap – how was I supposed to get my lunch now? It was my turn, and before the lunch lady could skip over me, I climbed up Ike's arm and sat on his head.

"May I borrow your head – thank you." I asked dismissively, before turning to the lunch bins that contained today's menu. One glance and my face fell. Mysterious lunch meat. Hooray. Being a rodent, I didn't eat that much meat.

"Do you have vegetarian goods?" The lunch lady grunted something, but my hearing didn't pick up any distinct response.

"DO YOU HAVE VEGETARIAN FOODS?" And so, for ten minutes, the lady went to find vegetable. The people behind me groaned and shouted all sorts of colorful words at me. The commotion got so loud and out of control that the cashier man roared, "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

I got my food. All I could have was a little plastic cup of salad, some beans, and half-cooked rice. But I was starving, so I could care less. At least it wasn't mysterious lunch meat. I thought to myself, standing on Ike's head, "why does the school spend so much on computers when they could improve lunch quality?" Tapping Ike's head with my foot, since my arms were occupied, I asked him,

"Can you help me down?" I was hoping he wasn't one of those meanie heads that would drop me on the floor. But Ike steadily raised me off his head and set me down. I looked up a him and grinned.

"Is there a fee for such good service?" I asked him, still grinning. Ike raised an eyebrow and stared at me for a second before requesting,

"You can find me a place to at where girls can't come after me," Hearing this, I burst out laughing. It was funny for several reasons. First, having so many girls hounding your back made you welcome with many guys in this school. Apparently, Ike didn't like cooties. Did he believe in cooties anyway? Two – he was so serious. His seriousness reminded me of Daroach, and that rat can be the biggest butt in history. But for some reason, the thought of Daroach was hilarious. Maybe it's because Yoshi had Mario sew him a stuffed-animal Daroach. Then, Yoshi played House with all his stuffed animals, and made his Daroach a dog. Now, people have to watch out because Yoshi might snipe them down with his stuffed Daroach, screaming, "OH NO, RABID DOGGY! !"

"No can do, sir," I answered apologetically, "The only place you can go without girls is the boy's bathroom. And I don't think you wanna eat in _there_." Ike sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I figured out that much," he muttered under his breath. Instantaneously, a light bulb went off in my mind.

"I have an idea," I announced brightly, kicking his boot to get his attention, "you can come sit with us!" Suddenly, Ike gave me a funny look, as if he was thinking, "why would want to sit with, out of all things, a rat?" I glared at him – I knew this look.

"If you want to sit with the gals, then -"

"Sure. Fine," Ike quickly made his mind.

It was some moments later when I sat back down at the lunch table. Link was sitting there, but some other guys that he made friends with were sitting around him as well. Lately, people have stopped being racist – which was good. Ike sat down awkwardly, and Link waved casually.

"Hey," he said, smiling, "you're Ike, right?" Ike smiled slightly.

"Yeah – and you'd be Daniel?"

"Link," Link corrected. Ike shrugged, and opened his packet to get his plastic spork. I watched him, thinking. He looked normal, except for his blue hair. He wore ragged jeans that guys wore, and he wore a regular shirt, too. He has a ponytail, and a headband. But there was one thing I noticed that was particularly interesting. His hands, I saw, were gloved and bound, with his fingertips left bare. I turned to Link, who was also staring at the peculiar, rugged gloves. He must have noticed, too.

"Is that some kind of new fashion?" Link asked. Ike's spoon stopped midway in its path to his mouth.

"What?" Ike lowered his spoon slightly, and raised his eyebrow, "My ponytail?"

"No, the gloves," Link pointed to his hand, also sheathed in brown leather, except for the fingertips. Now Ike was raising both of his eyebrows, and he placed his spoon in his tray.

"Do you swordplay?" he asked. His voice was lowered considerably, but it sounded eager. Compared with all the other times I have heard him, he sounded that he rose from a hundred-year old tomb and was brought to life by ten Monster energy drinks. He actually sounded interested in something, unlike all the other times he spoke. Link, on the other hand, grew a little shy.

"A little, I guess," Link chuckled, "I'm not _that_ great, but I can do some cool stuff."

"One-hand, 'n'half-hand, or two-hand?"

"Just one-hand," was Link's modest reply. Ike sat back and grinned. He stretched his long arms.

"I use a two-hand," he said, with a slight air of pride, "but I can use it as a one-hand. It ain't a one-half-hand 'cuz it's not long enough."

"Cool," Link nodded. One of his friends, Kevin, piped up from behind,

"I can fence!"

"Fence?" Ike snorted, "You mean those eensy-weensy elliptical pointers?"

"I can paint a fence," I quipped, wanting to join in the fray. All three guys gave me a funny look – Link rolled his eyes. Seeing him, I stuck out my tongue.

"It takes some real skill to paint a fence," I added defensively. Ike folded his arms.

"Uh-huh," I sighed now. Sometimes, it's hard to get a person to understand what it's like to be foot-and-a-half tall. Before I could say anything else about the subject, I heard a roll of thunder as a storm approached, all clad in tight shirts. Or should I say a roll of giggles, if there is such thing?

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!"

Someone shoot me now.

Girls flounced all around the table, propping their heads on hands, resting their elbows on the table. Kirby sunk low in his chair, hoping to remain unseen. Girls often commented on how "cute", and, "adorable" Kirby was, and would pinch his cheek while they squealed with delight. So many flashing claws that together looked like a rainbow as girls brushed their hair back. I stabbed my salad with my spork unhappily.

There was one girl who was slightly more plain. Just a t-shirt and frayed jeans, mouse-brown hair that fell at the shoulders. Hazel eyes. I remembered her vaguely from a few occasions, the most recent being the class roll call. Malon, wasn't it? She lived on a ranch in our neighborhood, some ways down the road. With her father, she raised cows and horses. A few years ago, one of her foals escaped and she was running door to door frantically, searching for it. Well, we found Epona all right. That day, Link was outside, and he was playing a flute-thing that Zelda gave him. I'll admit, he was pretty good with that thing, and he played and played all day. I guess the sounds were so sweet that it captivated that spry young horse and brought her to him. Malon got Epona back, and all was well.

The second instance where I remembered Malon was that time she asked Link out to the school dance.

That was the time Zelda was still with us at this school. But now that Zelda was gone, I wondered if Malon would go for Link again. Don't call me evil, but I have a slight problem with Malon and Link. Zelda loves Link still, and I know it. And since I know Zelda pretty well, I have more sentimental attachments towards her than Malon. If she came back to visit us and saw Malon with Link, she'd be devastated. But... Why do I care about romance? I don't understand how it works (and seemingly no one does), so why I am bothering to stick my nose into this business? Let life roll as it is, Pikachu.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Inside Kirby's basement, Daroach was "pacing". Or at least that's what Doc called it; Daroach, technically was floating back and forth across the length of the cage, but he supposed it counted for something. He had seen this behavior many times before, and now wondered what could be bothering the youngster this time.

"What's going on, Daroach?" Daroach, hearing his elder, looked over his shoulder in mid-pace. Storo was sleeping on the couch, but was he really sleeping? Stopping, Daroach studied Storo for a long moment, before giving himself a self-satisfactory nod. And Spinni was outside, making burrows in the lawn. Doc looked on, his thick eyebrows flattening.

"What is it?" he asked again, impatiently. Daroach blinked hard, and now faced Doc. His amber eyes flashed.

"I can't remember where I put this thing," Daroach resumed pacing. Doc knew that he was only trying to avoid talking to him. The old mouse gave a loud, plaintive sigh.

"What thing, Daroach?"

"Something," was the reply. Every time Daroach was upset about misplacing an object, it was always this mysterious "something". Under normal circumstances, the conversation would stop there and Doc would forget about it until the next time Daroach mentions that he couldn't remember where he put this "something". But by now, Doc was fed up with these "something"'s.

"Something?" Doc inquired, drawing each syllable, "Like an orange?" Daroach continued to pace.

"How about an apple?" Nothing.

"How about a grapefruit?" Daroach looked over his shoulder, frowning.

"What's with the fruits?" he asked. Doc narrowed his eyes from behind his swirling goggles.

"Daroach," he said flatly, "you're hiding something." Daroach snorted in response.

"What fifteen-year old doesn't?"

"Tell me why are we stealing all these things," Doc demanded in a low, deadly tone. Defiantly, Daroach kept his mouth shut.

"Would you care to explain what this 'something', is?" Daroach let out pent-up breath through his teeth, making a soft hissing sound. He then twirled his scepter in his claws, obviously uncomfortable.

"Why do you want to know, Doc?" Daroach finally asked. Now, Doc thought, this was an interesting question. Why did he want to know? Well, why does a person want to hear the latest news of a superstar's relationship? Just curiosity. Curiosity and concern, in Doc's case. Daroach was always worrying about this "something", it seems to him.

"Why don't you want me to know?" was Doc's counter-fire. Daroach opened his mouth, and then closed it, hesitating. The gray rat turned away, tapping the jeweled tip of his scepter as he thought deeply. Doc waited patiently for the answer.

"It's better you don't know,"

"Why not?" Doc questioned lightly. Daroach lapsed into a heavy silence once more. He began to drift towards the corner of the cage where he sat down to draw, but Doc noticed.

"Daroach, come back here," Doc called sternly, "Why is it better for me not to know?" Sullenly, Daroach floated. His face looked weary; although he was young and still knocking about in adolescence, his face seemed to belong to an older rat. There had been many misconceptions when it came to Daroach's age. Many claimed him to be in his later twenties, therefore claiming that he wasn't applicable to his juvenile rights when it came to sentences. He is charged with murder, and for blasphemy against some of the most sacred places in the universe, so many governments are ready to just wring him by the neck without a question to his age. It made Doc terribly sad how Daroach could simply throw away his life like this. He was so young... But then again, his childhood was a really painful one. His family never really liked him – all except for his father, who left him. Why he did, Doc never knew. And after Daroach lost his sister, he felt that he had enough - he left the house without his tail. Doc didn't see him again until years afterward, dirty, scarred, and delirious. Doc nursed him back to health, and ever since then Daroach was close to him.

But that didn't mean that Daroach told him everything.

"It's really dangerous, Doc," was all the weary rat said.

"Uh-huh,"

"I'm serious!" Daroach's outburst caused Storo to snort, and stir in his sleep, but no more. The gray rat's amber eyes flicked back to Doc. Doc sat placidly.

"You have to trust me, Doc," Daroach pleaded, his voice now softer, "It's so much more dangerous than anyone can imagine,"

"Why can't you trust me?" Doc countered in a light tone. A long silence followed. Finally, Daroach spoke again,

"You know what I'm more afraid of than the law?" Silence resumed as Doc tried to think of what Daroach was afraid of. But what can a criminal be more afraid of than the law? There was even a joke that a burglar was more afraid of the cops than death itself. So, how can there possibly something more frightening than the law, _especially_ when Daroach has a death penalty stuck to his head? Doc was ready to say "Your mom", but decided against it. The atmosphere was much too tense.

"What?"

_"Them,"_

Doc only heard _"them"_ used in such a dark tone once before. It made the old mouse very uneasy.

"So it has to do with _them?"_

"Yes. Precisely," Now Doc left Daroach be. The topic about _them_ always gave Daroach nightmares, which kept him up all night. As if it wasn't enough that he was an insomniac that rarely slept at all. Hoping to ease his attention away, Doc casually asked,

"So, why did you all of sudden wonder where that... 'something', is?" and then muttered under his breath, "Whatever it may be," Luckily for him, Daroach seemed to relax slightly, but his paw still twirled his scepter in nervous circles.

"It was Pikachu, actually,"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

He was the very last person I expected to find in the library.

"Mr. C?" I gasped, not believing what my eyes beheld me, "I thought the school fired you! That's what everyone told me," Mr. C, the former D.O. Fenses teacher seemed to be pretty tired today, although I suspected he did nothing much at all except for sitting at the counter. He smiled from behind the hand that propped up his chin.

"You can't believe in what everybody tells you," said a voice from behind a shelf. Slightly obscured by a pile of books was Ms. Astatine. Dang! She's here, too? A sudden wild thought bubbled to the surface of my brain, and my mood lifted to high heights.

"Are here to give us secret D.O. Lessons?" I was bouncing up and down in excitement. There was a chuckle.

"No,"

Good feelings gone. Beside me, Kirby shook his head.

"So," I asked, feeling rather dejected, "we're really library assistants?" Both former instructors nodded their heads. Kaput, and my light is out. School is boring as ever. Sympathetically, Kirby patted my back. I shrugged him off unhappily. Why in the world did I ever apply for school? Mr. C shifted behind the counter, a small smile playing on his face.

"Kirby, Pikachu?" he called for us. We both looked up at him, "I would like for you to meet some new friends." My ears perked up; new friends?

"Say hello to Mr. Feather Duster," From behind the counter, Mr. C produced a tacky-looking feather duster, colored with a cheap rainbow gradient. He tossed it to Kirby, who caught it glumly. I was just about as excited as he was. Hoorah. Mr. C didn't seem to notice – he gave the library a large sweep with his eyes, and sighed,

"Well, you guys better get moving – this is a big place, you know,"

We did dust, but half-heartedly. It's kinda hard to dust heartily when you are disappointed. Being a very old but disused library, there were many cobwebs and dust bunnies that no one cleaned out until now. I don't know why the principal would still want a library, especially since no one comes here. Never mind that – I sniffed out for more dust Kirby could dispose of. There were plenty all around in plain sight, but we were so fast and efficient that it took almost no time at all before Kirby had to rely on me to get the last hidden dust bunnies. My smell has lead me to some pretty nasty places, like under bookshelves where hollowed shells of dead cockroaches lay. This time, my nose lead me to a lonely bookshelf in the non-fiction section of the library. I quickly glanced at the titles, wondering what might be shelved here. _The Study of the Medieval Times_, _Life in 12__th__ Century England_, _Fortresses and Citadels of England and Scotland,_ blah, blah, blah. It seemed that this place was loaded with English history books. It was nothing of my concern – what I was aiming for was the dust behind the bookshelf. But this was pushed far against the wall, so how -?

"Hey Pikachu!" It was Kirby, calling to me, "You've got to see this!" I turned to look at my pink friend. Especially in the non fiction section, Kirby would excitedly pull out some book or another about rocks and call it worthy. Who knows, maybe this one was about they type of rock early Englanders used to build their castles.

"Kirby, I seriously don't want to -" One glance of the cover made me freeze. Unlike the other books, this one was bound in leather. Written on it was a language I couldn't understand, embossed into the cover with gold lettering. It was a big and dog-eared, one that you could call a old, fat, brown mutt of a book. It's pages were yellowing, and it's spine was worn at the edges. It looked so plain and old, and yet so enigmatic. I stood by Kirby's side, examining the find.

"Open it," I whispered. Gently as though he was handling freshly sprouted plants, Kirby lifted the cover. Underneath was paper – volumes upon volumes of paper – with the first one illustrated with a great tree, knobs and bark lined in incredible detail. The next page was basically empty, except for what looked like a sentence, smack dab in small print in the middle of the page. The following page had another lonely sentence, but this time there was...

… A smiley face? Reaching out, I flipped over several hundred pages.

"Hey, what are you -?" Kirby stopped short when I stopped flipping. It seemed that this event was predetermined, but it was purely out of curiosity and disbelief. I wondered what kind of book this was. It seemed very arcane and austere in its own way, but there was the smiley face that turned that impression upside-down. What we saw now completely stunned us. It was obviously an old drawing, lined on yellowed and crinkled paper. It lacked detail. But there was enough to recognize what the subject was. Bulbous snout, upright posture, stubby arms and legs with boots, the figure looked very much like one we knew.

It was a yoshi.

"What is this book?" I heard Kirby ask. Just then, a shadow fell over us.

"Need something?" It was Mr. C. We both turned around and looked up at him. His voice sounded extremely tired and weary. We glanced at each other quickly, and shook our heads in unison.

"No sir," Kirby answered, "we just found a book that we found interesting." The man raised an eyebrow, and shifted his weight to one leg, putting his hands into his pockets. Looking around at the books, almost mournfully, he asked us,

"Why don't I dust this bookshelf? You guys have done enough work today." For a change, I was in no mood to give up a book. I gave it a longing glance. But Mr. C had already taken Mr. Feather Duster and the mysterious book away from Kirby, shelving it amongst _The Physical Aspects of Welding, _and _The Properties of Steel._ With slow strokes, Mr. C began to dust the spotless top of the bookshelf. He must have noticed we were still standing there, for he looked over his shoulder, pausing his actions to say, "Run along, kids – it should be about time for you guys to go."

We wandered the school for fifteen minutes before leaving on the bus.

\\\

Just because I had found a way to make Daroach a much more pleasant person doesn't mean he will talk. He's a real tough cookie. But now I had other things on my mind rather than the reason why Daroach steals what he steals. Something was up with the library at our school, and I wanted to figure out exactly what.

"OH NO, RABID DOGGY! !"

"Hey Yoshi," I ducked the flying stuffed Daroach, and it zoomed out the door. The dinosaur, seeing me, forgot all about the stuffed animal, and higgled happily. From behind him was Spinni, much to my surprise. Even more so, the yellow rat was covered in dirt. I eyed him.

"What did you do today?" I was answered by a loud shout from Captain Falcon, coming from the backyard. I shivered. Kirby only shook his head. The lawn was on its way to outlasting the current record of six months flat, but now it was in ruins, with many, _many_ holes dug in it. Before Captain Falcon could see Spinni, we took him to Kirby's room and into the bathroom. Hopefully, Spinni didn't track dirt on the carpet.

As Spinni washed, I sat down with Doc, tired. Sometimes, I felt better sitting next to the old guy. He was calm and reassuring – he made everything seem all right and dandy. That was exactly what I needed now; something about the way Mr. C acted today made me nerved. It was out of character for him. Usually, Mr. C was like Doc, calm and focused. His mind was clear and he knew exactly what he was doing. But today... He seemed a little fuzzy. Right now, Doc was reading the newspaper that Yoshi fetched him. His furrowed eyebrows set a strained expression – perhaps he was trying his best to read the mutilated paper. In the corner, I spied Daroach. He was drawing again.

"Hey boss," Storo was up from the couch, and had waddled to Daroach's corner. The gray leader slowly lifted his eyes, still sitting mundanely on the ground, pencil poised over his drawing.

"What is it?" The leader sounded rather irritated today. Storo shuffled his fat, blue feet.

"Boss, it's raining -"

"Can't it wait?" Daroach snapped, before returning to drawing. I blinked – well, that was rude of him. Storo shifted his enormous weight.

"But Boss," Storo whined, "it's _raining_ pigs." For some odd reason, this got Daroach's attention. It certainly got mine, but usually Daroach ignored what he deemed to be nonsense. Daroach merely raised his eyebrows.

"Oh?" he drew out the syllable questioningly. There was a "tch!" from behind me. I turned to see Doc shaking his head. There was a smile under that fluffy, green mustache. Catching my eye, he mouthed, "secret code".

"For what?" I whispered. Doc shrugged.

"When they were younger, they thought it was cool that they had a secret code," the old mouse explained, "Storo still thinks its cool. I don't know what Daroach thinks about it now, though." He chuckled. We sat as Storo went on with some more gibberish. Then, quietly and aside, Doc asked me,

"Has Daroach talked to you about this certain 'something' he has?" Something? What something? He never told me anything! Anguished, I whined,

"Noooooooooooo,"

All of a sudden, there was a _whoosh!_ With a thunk, a dart landed squarely on the bulls-eye as Spinni walked in.

"Hola," he greeted. He was wet, and his glasses were askew on his face. I nodded in response, accustoming to his disheveled appearance. Doc sat straight, and folded his paper neatly.

"If you don't mind, Pikachu, could you kindly leave us for a while?" This was new to me. Seeing that all Squeaks were present, I was sure that Doc wanted to hold some kind of meeting. I've seen them all talk before, together. Spinni and Storo talked quite a bit about whatever they could think of, and Doc would add thoughtful comments of some kind. Daroach rarely spoke at all. However, this was the first time I was ousted from a conversation. Weird.

But since I was a host, did I have any right to deny my guest privacy? I left them with a simple nod, and up the stairs I went, ascending into Kirby's room. Kirby wasn't there, but I found him at Link's room. In fact, he was coming out of Link's room, shaking his head.

"What?" I asked him.

"Link never knew there was a library at our school," he answered, walking past me. I followed him, walking alongside. He was deep in thought. Obviously, he was still thinking about the incident at the library. I was too, but perhaps not as much anymore. There are simply too many things to think about.

"I think Mr. C is hiding something from us," Kirby suddenly said, sounding rather detached. I rolled my eyes.

"No kidding – he took that book from us,"

"That book..." Kirby said slowly, "Do you think we can ask Yoshi about it?"

"Do you think he will answer properly?" I snorted. Kirby sighed.

"Maybe you're right. But it's worth a shot," he thought some more, and then suggested, "Maybe we can talk to Mario and Luigi about it,"

"Maybe," I agreed.

Later, I went to see Link after dinner, just to say hello. Walking into his room, I noticed his flute thingy sitting by the window. I haven't seen it since the last time he had written to Zelda.

"What did Zelda say this time?" I asked him. Link was sitting at his desk, writing down something for homework. Hearing me, he gave a loud sigh and pushed his writing aside.

"I haven't heard from her since she left," To my surprise, he didn't seem particularly sad at all. Sounded like he was simply saying, "the sky is blue". It stunned me. What happened?

"Really?" my disbelief was evident, "Nothing?" Link never answered my question. Instead, he leaned back and examined his gloves for some time.

"You know that Ike?" he asked me. I was wondering why Link was acting so... So nonchalant. He loved Zelda – didn't he?

"Yeah," I asked, debating my inner thoughts, "I invited him to our table. Why?" Link was grinning broadly, and stood up from his chair. I watched him cross the room to the corner by his bed stand. Slightly obscured by the stand, was a leather sheath and a silver hilt of a sword.

"I think this is awesome," he said with enthusiasm that flowed over his tongue, "It's so awesome – I get to practice sparring and all now that Ike's here. This is awesome." Link grabbed the sword, and practically waltzed out the door. I decided to follow him, wondering where he could be going with that thing. I hope he's not going to scare little children. Samus would whoop his arse if he was.

"Mom?" Link called out. From the kitchen, Captain Falcon shouted,

"Mom left already! What do you want, kiddo?" Samus must be on yet another mission. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever retire – but then again, I can't imagine Samus _not_ bounty hunting. I stood quietly and out of view as Captain Falcon emerged from around the corner.

"What is it, sonny-boy?" I suppressed a snicker. Sometimes, the way the captain talked made me laugh. But then again, almost everything about him makes me laugh. One time, his mother and grandmother came to visit. I remember this frail, white-haired granny riding to the house on a flaming Harley, the kind only tough guys would ride. Falcon's granny had barbed wire tattoos on her arms, and wore a bandanna around her head. But she didn't drink – none of her family has ever drank a drop of alcohol. You'd expect them to, but Captain Falcon told us that his dear granny took him by the collar and ask him, "Do you wanna drink or do you wanna drive, sonny-boy?" Naturally, Captain Falcon chose driving. With the family there, life was like a theatrical performance. It seemed that every Falcon before Douglas Jay Falcon was very over-dramatic, including Douglas himself. Sunday night football was always a blast – Granny would jump on top of the couches and thrust her No. 1 Foam Finger in the air, screaming, "YUSH!"

We still love them very much; they are part of the family after all.

"Can I go to my friend's place?" The father frowned.

"Which one?" he asked his "sonny-boy".

"You know there's a new guy who moved in this summer?"

"Yes,"

"Well," Link continued, "I met him at school, and he asked me to go over to spar some," Now, some people would expect that a reasonable parent wouldn't dare allow teenage boys to be alone with sharp, pointy objects, but Captain Falcon wasn't the least bit worried.

"Sure – go ahead sonny-boy," With the a-okay, Link headed out the front door. I stopped there, watching him walk down the street to a tall, solemn figure leaning on the lamp post. That must be Ike – and someone else. I squinted at the other figure; it looked like a girl.

Turning back, I headed towards Kirby's room.

\\\

Mr. C had sent us to other classrooms to help out teachers for the rest of that week. Weekend past and it was Monday again; we were back in the library. Kirby was thinking that Mr. C was trying to take our minds off of that book, but our minds were only spurred with stronger curiosity. We offered to dust off some places. Strangely, and unintentionally, my nose lead me back to the same place. I still smelled an incredibly large source of dust behind the bookshelf. As I tried to peer to look at what sort of dust bunnies had collected there, Kirby looked for the book.

"Darn it," he muttered under his breath, "Mr. C must've took it out,"

"Hey – check this out!" I had found a smooth grove along the ground underneath the shelf. It was too smooth and too perfect to be just a mere indentation in the ground. Kirby hopped over to see. I sniffed again, and my senses were overloaded with the aged smell of dust.

"Maybe we can slide this shelf over a bit and brush up this place," I suggested.

"Sure," Kirby said, shrugging, "why not?" Together, we leaned our weight against the side, and pushed with our might. Grudgingly, the bookshelf scooted aside. By my head, a dark, deep crack was revealed, obviously part of a large hole covered by the shelf. Musty, stale air floated out. I stopped pushing, and poked Kirby in his pink side.

"Look at that," I whispered in awe. Kirby squinted, peering into the darkness.

"Well," I demanded impatiently, "What do you see in there?" Kirby grunted, and stepped closer to the crack, his starry, blue eyes scanning. I was beginning to detect smells of old paper.

"It looks like... Another library," was his conclusion. I was appalled.

"What? How do you know?"

"It looks like there's a lot of shelves in there," Kirby's voice drifted off as he peeped through the crack again, "I wanna check it out." He then turned to the bookshelf and gave it a firm push. Now, the shelf easily slid, and an archway was revealed. The darkness from inside was barely touched by the lights above us. The way how it was so dark and still was so... Creepy. It made you think of a dead guy's tomb. Beside me, Kirby frowned.

"Do you feel that?" Nervously, I asked him,

"Feel what?"

"Feel that... That _feeling – _it feels like... Like something that radiates." Kirby looked from left to right, and then right to left, before saying happily, "Well, I'm going in."

"Without a light?" Kirby sighed, exasperated.

"Can you see if there is electricity in here?" I closed my eyes and felt through with my fingers, my electrical nodes scouring the area for electricity. I only found currents running to the library, but not into this room. In the dim light, I spotted the smooth curve of a glass sphere the size of Kirby. It sat on a pedestal by a table not too far into the darkness. I climbed the table to examine it.

"Pikachu, what are you doing?" came Kirby's voice. I paid him no mind. I reached out to touch the glass -

Suddenly, the world lit up. Upon the contact with the finger and the surface, the sphere glowed white and bright with its smooth surface became very cold. Stunned, I fell back on the table. Kirby blinked his eyes hard. Obscured by darkness, the books on the shelves suddenly became clear. All of them were leather-bound, and not one seemed to be in New condition. All were in varying stages of weathering. I turned my head slowly, taking in the sight of all the ancient books around me. Rows upon rows upon rows of books. Hesitant, Kirby reached out to examine one.

"_The Art of Melee_," He read, and began to flip several pages, his starry-blue eyes opened wide. As I watched him, I felt something tingling at the back of my neck. Something farther down this room was emitting this feeling this... Power. It chilled me from the inside out.

"Enjoying yourselves?"

I turned on my stomach to see Mr. C standing at the opening, a weary smile on his face. Although he was a young man, he looked incredibly old at this moment. Kirby whipped around, slamming the book shut as he did.

"Ah, ah! Careful!" Mr. C winced, hearing the loud sound echo down the long corridor of the room. Kirby looked around before looking back at Mr. C. Our former instructor held his hands together at the front of himself, and smiled again, looking very tired.

"I knew that I couldn't keep you guys away from here for long," his voice was soft. So, Kirby was right – Mr. C _was_ hiding something from us. It's just we have never imagined it would be something this big. I looked down the corridor, down the rows and rows of old books.

"What is this place, Mr. C?" I asked, dazed.

"Why were you hiding it from us, Mr. C?" Kirby demanded. There was a sigh from the man.

"Kirby, Pikachu, this place we're in right now is a secret place. It's really important that you will _never_ tell a single soul about this place – _no one. _Understand?" We nodded vigorously in response.

"We swear," I added, breathlessly. Something told me that this was a very, _very _big secret. My ears twitched as another wave of that chilling feeling went through me. Mr. C blinked, and continued,

"This place once belonged to a valiant group of people, who built this room many, many years before this school was even built. These books," Mr. C swept a hand towards the shelves, "these books were written by them. They wrote from a far-ranging knowledge from all over this universe and they wrote almost every topic you can imagine. And here is where they stored all of their experience, all of their research, all of their theories, intelligence, and knowledge – in these books. This is a treasure mine for scholars as much as it is for historians. There are articles dating back to the times of medieval Europe about the study of the cosmos, claiming theory space expanded farther past the planets of Jupiter and Saturn hundreds of years before the 'first' person ever did. Here, there are secrets that account events that go against the laws of physics as we know today, and literally shatter whatever knowledge we have about the universe. Here are books written about what once was, is, and will be. Here, there is everything."

I looked back to the books. Suddenly, it felt as though an entire world was opening up to me. Another wave of chilling power ran through me. Somewhere far off, the dismissal bell rang. I pulled myself from my trance, and slid off the table. Kirby followed me to the exit. As we passed by, Mr. C smiled warmly.

"Welcome to the Library,"

* * *

**Great. You have waited such a long time for this and it sucks. Wonderful.**

**I had a change in point of view this time - I assure you that these changes of point of view will help the story. **

**And I promise to do a better job with writing next time. School has been a little hard on me - thanks for your patience!  
**


	29. The Ocean in the Toilet Room

**The Ocean in the Toilet Room**

"YOU CAN'T HAF EET! NO! MINE! YOU'LL NEVER GET EET, **NEVAAAAAAAAH!"**

The sound of yoshi boots and the galloping of hooves filled the atmosphere of the peaceful neighborhood. That and the horse's whinnies and Yoshi's screams.  
**"!"** A wind brushed me as Yoshi dashed by, holding his treasure. I shook my head – why didn't he just eat it already? Another wind whooshed by as the horse galloped along past, in hot pursuit of Yoshi's prize. It was a berry, specially imported from Yoshi's Island that Mario and Luigi gave to him for a snack. The smell that came from it... Oh lordy, it was delicious. Even I couldn't help try and snatch it. You could smell its delectable sweetness for miles – literally. The horse is proof of that. I watched the two run down the street to the left and out of sight. I would have helped, but what is a one-and-a-half foot tall pikachu supposed to do without hurting the horse?

I heard Yoshi's screaming crescendo back into audible range as he came running in from the right. The horse was following close behind him, its hooves pounding on the asphalt. Suddenly, with a renewed burst of speed, Yoshi ran to the house and right into the open door. With a _bang!_ Yoshi slammed it shut and locked it. You'd think it was a smart move, but that horse went right up to our front door and neighed. Then, it did an interesting thing: lifting a chestnut foreleg, the horse knocked on the door. It put its hoof down on the ground and whinnied, its white tail swishing back and forth as if the horse was impatient. It neighed again. Yoshi opened the door a peep, and screamed,

**"NEVAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"** and threw a stuffed Daroach at it. Now, the horse reared up in panic, neighing hysterically. Its front legs were churning, and as the horse brought down its front, it also brought down the front door.

Snap.

With a splintery crash, the wood smashed down on Yoshi. But the dinosaur stood stiff as a rock, mouth open and screaming, and his figure punched a clean hole – like in cartoons. From inside the house, a commotion arose as Captain Falcon, Link, and Ness started shouting. Kirby started running towards the scene from his museum. Neighbors were peering out from windows, wondering what was with all the hullabaloo. Some even came running out from their houses.

"Yoshi! What's – whoa!" Link appeared at the door, face to face with the horse. The equid neighed, causing some of Link's hair to blow backwards. Instead of running back into the house, Link squinted.

"Hey! HEY!" I turned around to see a girl running towards us. She was waving an apple in on hand. As she got closer, I recognized who she was.

"Malon?" Link frowned. The horse flicked its ears, and it swung its long head around to look at Malon with dark eyes. Snorting softly, it clopped down the sidewalk to her. The girl reached out and rubbed the horse on the sides of its neck, whispering words like, "Easy, girl,".

Is it just me or is this the same -

"Epona, you remember Link, right?" Malon then looked up and smiled at Link, holding Epona's head by hers. Link raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I'm really sorry for what happened," Malon continued, "Really! I'm sure Epona didn't mean to knock down the door – oh I am SO sorry, Link!" Now, she began to stumble over in her apologies, and she grew very red in the face. I snorted – and noticed a certain smell. Epona jerked her head back – she must have smelled that lovey smell, too.

"I'll pay for the damage – I'll, I can give you free eggs and vegetables and milk and stuff... I'll teach you how to ride a horse, for free!"

"Jeez," now it was Link's turn to turn pink – wait, pink? "It's fine... Uh..." Suddenly, Captain Falcon came onto stage. Striding in like a manly-man, the captain assessed the crime scene. Shattered door. Yoshi. Berry. Horse. Oh wait -

"THE DOOR!" Cap'n Falcon cried out dramatically, his arms outstretched to the door like a dead lover, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Silence. Yoshi dropped his berry.

Then, the captain stood up straight, and simply left – probably off to purchase a door, or get Mario and Luigi to make one. Link blinked, his face screwed into a frown, his face now very red. There was no other daddy like the captain.

"Everything is... Fine." was Link's awkward comment. Malon cleared her throat.

"Are you sure? I feel really terrible..."

"No," Link assured her, "we have it all taken care of,"

"No really! I feel so bad – there has to be some way I can fix this," Malon protested. Oh good grief, I smell it now. I pushed past Malon and walked to the house.

For Zelda's sake, I hope I didn't smell any of it on Link. I went down to Kirby's basement – I had a pretty good feeling that the Squeak Squad was wondering what's with all the noise.

"Sounds like a horse knocked down the door," was what I heard first from Spinni as I walked downstairs. Crazy kid can hear _everything._

"A horse did," I confirmed. Spinni glanced up at me, following my sound across to the cage.

"Really? Whose idea was that?" I snorted, and opened the cage door to walk in.

"No one's – I don't think anyone but you would do that on purpose," I saw Daroach in the corner, drawing. He was either drawing, or pacing. Or just sitting there – sometimes, Daroach would sit for a long time, his hat dipped low over his eyes, his cape wrapped around his body. But he would be awake. I sat down next to him after scooting aside some sketches. Recently, I became more interested in everything and what this world had to offer, because the Library had opened up my mind to new subjects. Like something I'm pretty sure Daroach would be interested in – thieving. I had found a book on thievery, and it was REALLY interesting, to be truthful. The author was like a Houdini – and _she_ (notice the _she_) was a super-genius! She used whiskers to pick locks, she used her claws to carve holes into thick panes of glass, she knew practically everything when it came down to the art of theft. She even knew how to run away and never be found again – which is what happened to her. She disappeared. I wonder how this battered book wound up in Illinois.

"Have you ever heard of a famous, girl thief called Kat?" Daroach stopped drawing and looked down at me, his face bemused.

"No," he said, his voice plain, "why?" I merely shrugged in response. The gray leader returned to drawing, and we got quiet. After a few seconds, I said,

"Well, a horse busted down the door, today,"

"So I've heard," was his reply. Then, adding at random, he said, "I like horses," I frowned at him.

"Why? They can be big and scary and can trample right over you!" Daroach only chuckled, and kept drawing.

"To you, yes," and then with a self-satisfied grin, he said, "but I find horses a real delight to draw. They are beautiful."

"Is there anything you _don't_ find beautiful to draw?"

"Not yet, I don't think,"

"How about Storo? Do you think he's beautiful?"

"Now, now," Daroach hushed me, "you've got to be polite. Haven't your parents taught you anything?" It was as if he punched me in the stomach.

"My mom dumped me," I stared and my hands. I heard the pencil stop scratching on the paper.

"I see," was Daroach's short response, "Haven't you... Hinted this before?" I shrugged.

"Maybe – I don't talk about my mom a lot, because I didn't get to know her well enough. I mean, I was only there for a few hours, I think."

"I see,"

It was a quiet moment. Daroach had stopped drawing, and we listened to Spinni chuck darts at the dartboard. The yellow ninja was now in Kirby's room, to make his pastime a little more interesting. A dart whizzed downstairs in a curve, and landed smack dab in the center.

"So," for a change, Daroach broke the silence, "How is school?" Well, that was a strange question for Daroach. That guy NEVER asked me anything about how my life was going, EVER – until now, that is. This subject, at least, I could talk a whole bunch about. Maybe after I finish, Daroach would be nice enough to tell me why he was being particular in his thefts. Maybe... Not.

"School is boring," I groaned, "I have no idea why I even decided to go – it was my mistake." Daroach smiled, and tapped his eraser on his pad of paper.

"But I thought you and Kirby were talking pretty lively yesterday," Yesterday, which was Friday, had been the first day we were able to read the books in the Library. Before that, we had to clean off the good inch of dust on every surface, except for the back rooms. Mr. C told us we were NEVER to go there under any circumstance. It didn't bother us, though. I got the _Queen of Thieves_, and Kirby got _The Book of Yoshi_. Both we found interesting, and we got to take them home, because they were in relatively good condition. Some other ones we weren't allowed to check out, because they were made of fragile parchment. He trusted us with a key to the school library, to check up on the Library when he couldn't be there.

But I wasn't allowed to tell ANYONE about the Library. I paused, wondering what I should say now.

"We just found some really cool books in the library at school,"

Now, once you get used to Daroach, there isn't many things about him that can scare you. I mean, there isn't much fright in the fact that he sits in a corner and draws all day. When you talk to him, he usually keeps drawing and nods to whatever you say. You could call him stupid, and he would nod before realizing what he had just agreed to. But that small frown, and the furrow of his brows, and that golden glint in his eyes scared me. Daroach is smart, don't get me wrong. No other person has been able to successfully capture him. He has been able to evade danger after all the years he has been in the thieving realm. So, I had a feeling that his brain notified him that, "Hey, there is something fishy here!"

But why would he be interested in a library, that houses no bedazzling glassware by Aniram, but old leather and paper?

"I see," was all Daroach said about the subject.

\\\

Kirby and I were sitting at a table, with large, bedraggled books opened up to the ceiling. I was nearly done with _Queen of Thieves_. Outside the hole in the wall, Ms. Astatine and Mr. C were talking softly over the library counter. As usual, no one else, besides us four, was here.

"So," my pink friend continued on, "Link agreed that Malon would teach him horseback riding for free." I frowned, looking up from the last few pages.

"What did Cap'n Falcon say about it?" I asked. Kirby exhaled sharply in amusement.

"I don't think Link ever mentioned it to him – I'm thinking that Link doesn't want Cap'n getting all dramatic over the door again." I couldn't help but laugh, thinking back to the captain's reaction to the sight of the door. I'm only glad that he didn't Falcon Punch Malon and her mare to the moon. Kirby laughed, too.

"And what did Yoshi say about the book?"

"He said, 'I haf dis in my house!'" Kirby mimicked the high pitched squeal, and we laughed some more. Yoshi's voice was always sweet and funny.

"How come Mario and Luigi never told us anything about this book?" I asked Kirby. Seriously, if Yoshi had it, I'm more than sure that he would have shown it to us. And if not, I'm pretty sure Mario or Luigi would have given it to Yoshi at some point. Now, Kirby sat back and tapped his pinpoint mouth.

"I think," he said, "that Yoshi means his home on Yoshi's Island," I only remembered vague conversations about Yoshi's Island. Mario said it was like paradise, and everyone was nice to you and put flowers in your hair. Or something like that. Oh well – I dropped the subject.

"Could he read it?" I asked him. We two couldn't decipher anything from the scrawls, so I wondered if Yoshi did. Kirby spent much of his time on Sunday with Yoshi and the book.

"Yeah, he can,"

"Did he tell you what it's about?" At this point, Kirby exhaled sharply.

_"Once upon a time, there was nothing. And then, there was something."_ He recited. I laughed and shook my head.

"Sounds like something Yoshi would say," I finished laughing, "What else do you remember?"

"LOTS of berries," Kirby groaned and rolled his eyes, "Apparently, the yoshis put a lot of emphasis on berries. There's the First Berry, and the First Leaf of the First Berry, the Second Leaf of the First Berry, and the Third Leaf of the First Berry. Yoshi says that he was colored exactly with the same green-ness as the First Leaf of the Fir... Blah. And then there some yoshi who ate the First Berry, and then Yoshi started talking about McDonald's."

"Anyway," Kirby continued, "Yoshi wants to keep the book. I'm going to ask Mr. C if he can keep it," I blinked, feeling a little afraid.

"Now?" Kirby, ready to hop out of his chair, frowned.

"Why not?" He gave me a long look, "What's eating you?" The truth was that I didn't like staying alone in the Library. The hallways were long, and dwarfed me. Everything got real quiet. Then, I would start feeling the waves. For some reason, I felt pulsations of energy that ran down the shelves, and swept over me, like an invisible monster. It was real freaky.

"Pikachu?" I snapped back to reality as Kirby called my name.

"Huh, whuh? Whatever," My pink friend gave me another long, concerned look, before hopping completely off of his chair, and left the Library through the hole.

Already, I feel like I'm alone.

Suddenly, I felt a rush pass through me, and the pages on my book fluttered. I closed it – I was done with it, anyway. Time to check out a new book. I suppose moving around would be a little better than staying in one place. Getting up, I walked down the hall some ways, and slotted the book back into its place. I expected something to happen, and I waited for some sound, or some feeling.

Nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Library. But something about it makes me feel I'm in the presence of something really powerful.

Another wave passed through, and this time as it rushed past me, I was filled with nostalgia. You see, there are two different pulsations that I experience. The more frequent one fills me with dread. The other one makes me feel nostalgic, ready for adventure, and sometimes... Sad. Really sad. Who knows why, but they do.

Comforted slightly, I moved down the shelves, looking for interesting titles. Hmm... Maybe I should try that one aisle with the sliding book ladder – I could use some fun. Searching carefully, I moved down the rows and found bookshelf Thirteen. Stretched from top to bottom was a ladder, hooked to the shelf at the top and bottom with wheels. Kirby and I would climb up, with me topping the highest rung. Then, Kirby would push on the edge of the shelf, and we would zoom down the shelf before crashing on the other side. At times, I nearly was thrown off.

Today, I am by myself. I climbed to my high perch, and planted my feet firmly against the end of the bookshelf, laying my body across the rung and holding on with my arms. Deciding that whatever book I stopped by would be the book I would read next, I pushed hard off the shelf with my feet and tail. To my right, the spines became a blur.

A pulse hit the ladder like a brick wall, and the ladder jerked back. But since I was still traveling with the same velocity, I practically flew right off.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-**OOMPH!"** I made my touch-down face-flat into the tiling. Talk about painful! That hurt SO damned much, I wanted to throw a tomato _clean_ through a window. I have a feeling that I broke something on my face...

Sitting up, I licked my teeth and gums to feel for holes, loose teeth, cracked teeth, broken teeth, bleeding. Nothing. I felt my face, feeling for weird indentations or rigid bone. Nothing. Dang, I must have one, tough body. I sniffed to see if I snorted up any blood.

And that's when I noticed that smell.

For some odd reason, I smelled salt. Amid all of this old books, I smelled salt. Not as in salty-potato-chip salt, but a natural type of salt... The sea.

Slowly, I got to my feet. Standing up, I realized I flung down the aisle and landed beside a bookshelf. This section beyond the book ladder remained unexplored by Kirby and I. I remember Kirby telling me that we could check this place out later. Well, it was time to check it out.

I felt a pulsation – what was surprising to me was that I felt the surge nostalgia again. A deep, resonating feeling sung in my body and made my heart ache.

I also heard a faint sound. It was rhythmic and soothing, almost like a peaceful giant peacefully breathing in his sleep. I tilted my ears carefully, trying to tone my hearing to pinpoint the very location of this sound. Slowly, I turned my head, and then, rotated my body. It sounded like it was just behind the book shelf and around that corner...

I walked slowly forward, not knowing what to expect. I wondered if it was one of those environmental cassette tapes that my English teacher always plays, but nothing explained the smell. Maybe it was one of those sea salt potato chips. No. It couldn't be – the smell was too natural and smelled too much like water than a vegetable. I peeked around the bookshelf, wondering what I would see.

Just an empty walkway, running along the back wall of the Library. Nothing special. The sound was coming from down there. The smell of old mustiness filled my nostrils, replacing the clean, salty-sweetness earlier. This was one of the two places Mr. C. didn't want us to clean up. He said he would do it, but I guess he hadn't gotten to it yet.

I came face to face with a door at the corner of the room. At first glance, you'd expect it to be a restroom or a closet to store things. However, something was weird about it. Underneath the edge of it, I expected it to be pitch black. Instead, I was in for a pretty big surprise – there were no shadows. Something was alight in there. It wasn't overly bright, but you could hardly notice a shadow. Being me, I had to know what this mysterious, light room was. I looked up at the door handle, my eyes running along the board from the bottom to the top. In the middle of my eye's path, however, was another handle. It was built at a lower level, at a height in which I can easily reach. It's a strange feeling I know, but I believe that this lower handle was made _intentionally_ for people my height, and not some cheap mistake.

So, it would make sense if I, being at my own height, opened it.

I was completely unprepared for what I saw. Smack dab in front of me was a stormy, gray ocean. I saw its churning depths, I smelled that overwhelming saltiness, and I heard the surf rush and slosh and hiss.

I blinked and stepped back a little.

After recovering from the initial shock, I noticed that there was a thin film of material that looked like the surface of a soap bubble. I could barely see it, but when a dark wave came through without a white, foaming crest, I saw it. I saw it rippling, its colors swirling in perpetual motion. After noticing that, I took in the entire image. It wasn't like I stepped through a door and there was the ocean right in front, splashing at my feet. It wasn't like that at all. Instead, the sea seemed to be framed into a hexagonal shaped frame, that glinted gold. Spreading across the frame was the thin, soap-bubble membrane and then, behind it, seemed to be the churning sea, the stormy gray sky, and... I squinted. There was a black silhouette of a landmass, like a black hill raising out of the sea. On top looked like ancient ruins that reminded you of Athens and the Coliseum, and old castles in England. It seemed to be an old, dilapidated castle on an island.

I took the entire sight in, the sight provoking some dead emotion inside me, bringing it to life. I can't exactly describe it, but it was this feeling like... Like dignity. Like respect. Something about that sight seemed to be of honor. And, with the way how mournfully the castle had crumbled, something felt tragic about this scene. Sad. But I can't exactly put my finger on it...

I took yet another step backwards. What the heck was this hexagonal picture frame? Why was there an ocean, anyways? Was all of this real, or has that crash from the book ladder really messed me up?

In my life, there had been one way to judge whether something was real, and that was to see if I can touch it. I have eaten both real and imaginary foods, one of them I could feel in my mouth and the other I cannot. I stepped forward, reaching out with my arm. My fingers trembled, not knowing what to expect. Was this illusion going to vanish into swirling vapor? And will I wake up, on the floor, face-flat and with my brains spewed all over? Or will I - ?

My fingers reached the firm, metallic surface of the golden frame. I stared at them, taking in the fact with vision that indeed I was touching the frame, and yes I could feel its cold surface. Then that peculiar, soap bubble-film. My other hand slowly raised, and my finger lightly brushed upon it, causing the membrane to fluctuate and become visible briefly around the contact point. Its feeling was cool to the touch, and the texture was smoother than silk, but felt lighter than air itself. It was like touching a sheet of wind, I suppose – if you can imagine that. With one hand firmly on the frame, the other gently stroking the membrane, something erupted in me.

The emotion I felt inside me was powerful, It made you ache for the high seas, the towering mountains, the wide open plains, the broad, yawning sky. It made you ache for the glittering depths of space. This feeling made you want to get to your feet, and see the world in all its stunning glory, to see what the definition of "grand" can really be. This hunger for adventure, this...

What was that word again?

Oh yeah. Nostalgia. Such a beautiful word.

My hands left the hexagonal frame, reluctantly. But I couldn't just stand there forever, not trying to figure out what this thing really was, now that I know it was real. I wonder if this big, ol' Library has anything about this. Turning to leave, something white caught my eye before I returned to the books – and it made fear shoot through my veins. It sat mundanely underneath the hexagonal frame, like a cat under the bed.

A human skull was grinning up at me.

\\\

"There is a serious problem with your horses," was Ike's distasteful remark after he pushed himself up from the ground. Malon only laughed in response, and whistled her palomino back to her.

"I think there is a serious problem with you," she teased, rubbing the distressed horse's nose, "Link is doing just fine,"

Link had invited Ike to his horseback riding lesson for the heck of it. I decided to tag along, and Yoshi brought Kirby with him. So, we were all here at Malon's ranch, hanging around the ponies. Malon picked the horse for Link, and funnily enough, it was the same darned one that knocked down the door. Epona didn't mind Link, and Link didn't mind Epona, so all was well. Already, Link was riding around without having Malon as a guide. Good thing, too, because Ike needed one.

"C'mon," Malon called to the downed blue-hair, "Let's try again," Ike groaned. Now that he wasn't quite as new anymore, he was a little more open in his expressions. Which was nice, because uptight people get on my nerves. Cough-cough, Daroach.

"Hell no – my bottom had enough, thank you," Ike muttered, "God knows how long it will take for it to snap off,"

"Or become a pancake," Link added from a distance.

"Aw – stop being a spoil sport," Malon whined, guiding the palomino back over to Ike.

"Aw – stop being a sporty," Yoshi somewhat echoed, higgling as he rolled over onto his head.

"Shut up, Yoshi," Yoshi only grinned at Ike's remark, his body arched so that his feet rested firmly on the ground, and his head beside them.

"Shut up, Ike," he higgled, and then his tongue shot out to the side in a straight line before flopping on the ground unceremoniously with a "Durr...". Kirby frowned at him from over his pink notebook, probably taking notes on horse behavior or something. Meanwhile, I had my own horseback lessons.

"C'mon, Yoshi!" Since I was never comfortable with horses, I decided to take a ride on Yoshi's saddle. Mario said that when he was a baby on Yoshi's island, Yoshi's grandpa (who was green as the Third Leaf on the First Berry, by the way) and his friends sheperded him, Luigi, and Peach as well as some other people. They were trustworthy transporters, and would go to extraordinary lengths to protect their riders. Luigi recalled that one time he fell off the saddle of a yellow yoshi and into the jaws of a shark (weird, I know, but that's what happened), the yoshi dove in right after him. Obviously, Luigi lived, and so did the yoshi. That yoshi was Yoshi's uncle's cousin's aunt twice removed.

Just because Yoshi had a large family history of fantastic ferriers, doesn't mean he lived up to it. Sometimes, he would stand still for a long time as I tried to get him to move. When I jump off his back to push him on the side, he would either A: remain where he was, or B: remain where he was before bending down and munch on the grass. Still, it was better than Ike's progress.

"I don't like horses," Ike folded his arms stubbornly.

"The horses don't like you much, either," said Kirby behind him, chuckling. He shot him an annoyed glance.

"Thanks," Epona trotted over, with Link easily guiding her with his reigns. Malon gave him an approving smile.

"I guess you really don't need me to teach you anymore, huh?" she remarked, putting her hands to hips, and leaning her weight on one leg. Link smile and shook his head.

"I still don't know how to jump," I heard Ike sigh loudly from behind me.

"Jumping? My back hurts just thinking about it," he complained, putting both hands on his afflicted area, "Damn, I'm sore," I snorted – did Link really think he was ready for jumping? Did he even know how to control a running horse yet? All I seen him do is trot around. It seemed that Malon was thinking of the same thing.

"Have you gave her a run, yet?" she asked him, "You would need to have a pretty fast start in order to do jumps," Now Link must have realized what he tried to skip over, for he turned slightly pink.

"Oh," he frowned, "well... It shouldn't be that hard," He pulled his reigns to steer Epona away, and with a quick squeeze on Epona's stomach with his heels, the mare lurched forward with a loud neigh.

"Hey!" Malon cried after him, "Be careful! Don't fall -" Too late, Link fell from the saddle and tumbled onto the ground, rolling stomach to back several times. When he stopped, he was eagle-sprawled, and still.

"Oh no..." Malon ran over, deathly pale. Epona trotted over, realizing that her rider had fallen off, and approached Link with soft snorts, head bent down low. Ike, on the verge of laughing, had fallen silent.

"Link?" Malon stood over him, her voice uncertain. Then, she kneeled beside him, and shook him by the shoulders, "Link?" Now, I was a little worried myself. I slowly walked over, cautious. I was suddenly reminded of a random fact, the one that stated that horses killed more people annually than sharks.

"Link?" Link's eyes suddenly flung open.

"Boo,"

Malon jumped back and fell onto the ground as Link started to laugh, sitting up straight. Epona's head hovered by his, over his shoulder – Link reached up and patted her cheek, still shaking from laughter. Malon was hysterical.

"Link! Don't do that – I seriously thought you died!" she cried. Something inside me twinged. I remembered Zelda saying those exact same words to Link. They were like nine, or somewhere around there, and were playing on the roof. I was there too, being the nut I am – we were all nuts. Captain Falcon had left the ladder out and propped against the wall. Of course, Link and Zelda wanted to explore, and took the opportunity to see the rooftop while the ladder was out. We climbed up there, and walked on the hot shingles. We were careful not to make too much noise... I think Samus had came back from a bounty hunt the day before and was sleeping then. I remember we played tag, and Zelda was it when Link fell over the edge. Zelda had ran over to the edge and cast some protection charm on Link before he hit ground, or at least attempted too. The blue bubble shattered into crystaline pieces before evporating into sparkling dust, and Link lay on the sidewalk three stories down. I had never seen Zelda teleport as fast as she did then. Obviously, Link lived – but we seriously thought he died that day. He didn't wake up until ten minutes later.

I sorta miss Zelda. I didn't talk to her as much as I should, since we were living in the same house, but we still talked sometimes. She was a very nice person. She was Link's best friend, too – who knows how come Link was so nervous with asking Zelda to join our team for the DO Fenses exam. They always explored together. But then again, Link loved her then.

But why hadn't Zelda written back? Where was she, anyways?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Cormorag sat at the library counter that Saturday afternoon, his head resting against his folded hands, propped up by his elbows. Lately, he had been thinking of the Library as he waited. He knew it wouldn't be safe for long, and he knew it had to be relocated. But, it was dangerous to remove it from where it was, and its magnetic power would bring in...

He heard a noise, reminiscent of wind being sucked through a tube, and before him, a dark void opened up, as the sight around the hole became distorted, as if the world was being sucked into that hole. It grew bigger, until a dark, hooded figure stepped through and out onto the library floor. With a delicately gloved hand, the figure waved at the swirling, black hole. Immediately, the darkness wafted away in a purplish wisp. Cormorag raised his eyebrows and then bowed his head slightly, before saying,

"Good afternoon, Your Highness," The lighting in the library lit fainly on a thin, pointed face from under the dark shadows of the hood. Her crystal-blue eyes shimmered for a moment as she raised her head.

"Don't call me that, Mr. C" Zelda said softly. Mr. C chuckled.

"You will have to get used to it, Zelda," he told her, "just in case," Zelda only sighed, and wrapped her cloak tighter around her. It was no colder in the library than in Hyrule, but she was nervous. In fact, she had always had certain anxiety eating at her stomach ever since she left. She was safe and secure – Impa had planned it that way. But now were desperate times, and it was absolutely necessary that she had to leave her peaceful and happy life and out into the unknown. She had known that there was something strange with the world before Impa had talked to her. It was during the blizzard and its following events when she was taking the DO Fenses exams. That blizzard was completely foreign – Zelda could feel that it wasn't quite natural. And that bear – that wasn't natural either.

Hyrule was in peril when Impa brought her there. It looked beautiful upon sight, with vast, rolling green hills and snowy peaks with broad forests. Like a fairy tale setting, she had thought. But how could she ever imagine the danger that plagued this world – and the others?

"We're some of the few who recognizes that all of us are approaching a chaotic edge," Impa had told her as they had cut across a field to the entrance of the castle, "Maybe in time you'll understand how we are all connected together," Just then, some of the light-petaled flowers took to the air, drifting lazily in the hot summer sky. Impa reached out, and a single, white petal landed lightly on a finger tip.

"We all are in a delicate balance," she continued on softly, examining the flower with a knowledgable expression, "it does not take much to upset it," With that, she blew on the petal, sending it along on its journey, tumbling through the sky and away into the blue.

"Mr. C," Zelda spoke suddenly, "are you familiar with the world Termina?" The ex-instructor suddenly looked grim, mouth tight behind his clasped hands

"Termina no longer exists, Zelda," he answered somberly, "It has been destroyed for twenty or so years already," The princess-in-waiting raised her head slightly, her eyes glittering again.

"So you really are the Librarian," she said, her voice hushed.

"I am," answered the Librarian in a weary voice, as if bearing a heavy weight. Zelda ignored this – she had questions on her mind, ones concerning the delicate balance of the worlds.

"What happened to the Pokemon World?" she asked earnestly. She knew very little about the Pokemon World, and what kinds of things in it, but she knew that there were deities. Powerful deities. And she knew that if any of them came in conflict with other worlds after Termina's destruction, it certainly wouldn't be the first. The Librarian raised an eyebrow.

"Which one?"

"What?" Zelda was appalled, "What do you mean?" There was a long sigh from the man behind the desk. He closed his eyes, as if he were deciding upon some crucial option. Finally, he opened his eyes again.

"Why are you so concerned?"

"I think," Zelda drew her cloak around her, her eyes glittering from underneath her hood, "out of all people, you would know why." She withdrew a gloved hand from in her cloak, and waved it to the archway of the Library.

"I perfectly understand the danger we are in at this point, because of Ganondorf and Termina's destruction," she continued, " and -"

"Do you?"

Zelda lapsed into silence as the Librarian stared keenly, face pressed against clasped hands. He then spoke,

"Zelda, when I was chosen to become Librarian some eight hundred years ago, I thought I had some idea about this system of universes. The Knights were convinced that I was our world's leading expert on the subject, and in some sense, I was. I probably still am." The Librarian, whose youthful face betrayed his immense age, paused before continuing, "But, even after eight hundred years of devoted study to this subject, I still can't predict effects for sure, and how these world structures behaved. I know we are in great danger, but I have no idea how comprehend how great."

"There is a prophecy, carved on the desk of a seer at the Academy, that might explain a little of what this effect may be – asides the fact that Hylian parallel world is now mixed in ours," The Librarian cleared his throat, and then spoke again, "It talks of the superpowers of all of the worlds coming together with their armies in a great war, where battlefields will stretch from horizon to horizon, from galaxy to galaxy, world to world. Death is inevitable,"

"Of course, I can't be so sure that this is the actual prophecy that would describe the aftermath of Termina's destruction," the Librarian added in a half-hearted tone, glancing down to wipe a stray pencil mark on the tabletop with a thumb. Zelda felt very cold, although the school library must have been seventy-eight degrees.

"And what if it is?" she whispered. The Librarian looked up with his eyes, pausing his actions.

"Then," he said softly, "this is only the beginning. I have no idea how long this great war would last, but this would definitely be just the beginning." Hearing this, Zelda became extremely anxious. Already, Hyrule was undergoing internal combustion, where key figures and superpowers were destroying the world from the inside out with so many battles, civil war, and power usurpation. If Ganondorf was not careful with what he was doing, then Hyrule along with its other sister worlds would follow Termina's fate. Now, Zelda found herself sighing along with Mr. C and holding her forehead in the cradle of her clasped hands. We might as well condemn ourselves dead, she thought. How can you stop a power-hungry fool? How can you stop hundreds of power-hungry fools in this world, and others? And, how can you stop a power-hungry superpower?

Zelda glanced at the clock. Impa would be expecting her soon. Standing up, she gave the Librarian her thanks, and with a flourish of a triforce-emblazoned glove, opened up a dark, swirling portal back to Hyrule. She lifted her skirts to step through.

Suddenly, the princess-in-waiting felt a pulse run through her, its epicenter coming from deep in the Library, filling her with fear. Glancing at the Librarian, she asked,

"Mr. C, did you feel that?" He looked up from his bent posture, seemingly half-attentive.

"No," he answered, his voice trailing, "I did not," The princess-in-waiting shook her head; it must have been the trick of the mind, the effect of long exposure to anxiety. Reassuring herself, Zelda stepped into the swirling darkness, head held high and confident. Behind her, the Librarian closed his eyes, and sunk his head down to rest on his folded arms.

He hated to lie.

* * *

**Okay, okay. I'm guilty. I had promised a most excellent, action-packed chapter last time.**

**Initially, this chapter was going to cover all the content here and what is coming up in the next chapter (I promise), but I found that it would be more convenient and I suppose better to split the two in half.**

**So, sorry if I disappointed you. I promise that there will be something interesting action next chapter. **

**By the way, I had to change my time transitions to \\\, because FFnet won't recognize the other one anymore. So, don't get confused between the Point of View shift and the Time Shift. Comprende?  
**


	30. This is Halloween

**This is Halloween**

Considering the fact that Link and Malon had been spending a lot of quality time together with the horse manure, it came as no surprise when Link asked Malon out to our school's Halloween dance. Except for Ike, because he didn't find anything very romantic about poop and horses.

And it was very, _very,_ awkward when Link was bringing it up to his parents. I mean, _VERY _awkward. Link told me that when he finally admitted that he was in love with the horse girl-neighbor, Samus and Cap'n Falcon were silent for a

very

long

time.

Who knows what they could be thinking of – I'm not a parent, and I hope Link won't be a parent anytime soon. Ugh, that gives me the shudders.

Anyway, happy Halloween to all who celebrate it. It's not exactly Halloween yet, but I say it's darn close enough. I mean, everyone around town is getting ready for some big party, or decorating the yard, or preparing costumes, or fasting so they could eat a ton of candy after Trick-or-Treating. I'm excited – I love candy very much. Kirby and Yoshi are very excited, too. We plan to be the Headless Horseman when we go out and raid the candy buckets – yes, I said _we._ Yoshi will have a horse costume on, and Kirby and I will be the man. I had to be the butt, because Kirby claimed he was better at throwing pumpkins and had the perfect figure for a headless torso. I agree to some extent, because who is afraid Headless Horseman with an overly-round bottom? Unfortunately, I heard rumors that Malon was going to be a Headless Horseman (er, woman), too. Copy cat – we'll just have to beast ourselves up and look a whole heck scarier. Besides, real horses are overrated.

We were getting ready to decorate our house in spook-tacular galore, with the help of the infamous Mario and Luigi and all their beastly skills with decorations when Daroach noticed that something special was going on. As usual, Daroach was indifferent, and perhaps a little stiff and terse about it. But even with all the pumpkin carving, house-decorating, and all the other artsy-crafty stuff, Daroach didn't seem all too happy. That was the unusual part of the situation.

"Halloween, is it?" he asked, his hat low over his left eye. I nodded happily. The gray leader then "hmmph"ed and returned to his drawing. Determined to keep him talking, I crawled over and poked him hard in the side. Suddenly, I felt something metallic and cold hit me across the face, and I was sent flying backwards several yards away. My face stung from the harsh impact. Shocked and angry, I looked up at Daroach. The gray leader was drawing, as if nothing happened, except now his scepter lay peacefully by his side. I was about to shout some nasty words when Spinni touched my arm. I turned to face him.

"He hates Halloween," Spinni said, tilting his head to the side, "He hates it very, _very_ much," I rubbed my sore nose, bitterly.

"So? He didn't have to hit me," I retorted, pulling my arm from his grasp. Spinni sighed, and whispered,

"Just don't mention it," He went outside of the cage to go run around in the woods. I was still pretty angry, though. How dare Daroach hit me! I decided to walk right up to him, and I stood as tall as I could with the meanest glare on my face, hands on my hips.

Daroach continued drawing. His ignorance really ticked me off then. I snatched his papers out of his paws. Suddenly, Daroach looked up, and he didn't look at all pleased.

"Give that back, Pikachu!" He hissed angrily. Quickly, I jumped away from his grasp, and onto the sofa's backrest. Startled, Storo sat up on the sofa. Not paying any mind, I waved the papers at Daroach.

"You can have this back when you apologize to me!" I yelled at him, distinguishing myself with a loud _thump!_ Storo started to back into the farthest corner away from us, and covered his ears. Doc retreated into the giant plastic castle. Slowly, Daroach rose.

"Daroach," Doc's voice warned from inside the castle, "Calm down..."

"Give them back, Pikachu," said Daroach, his voice now deadly quiet. I flattened my ears and bared my teeth.

"Not until you apologize," As soon as those words left my mouth, Daroach rushed forward and -

Disappeared? I looked around dumbly.

Suddenly, something grabbed me by the tail, and lifted me into the air uncomfortably. I turned my head to glare face to face with Daroach's fiery eyes. Deftly, he snatched his crumpled drawings back, and then without warning, dropped me on the sofa. But, I was not through with him. I climbed the backrest again.

"What have I ever done to you?" I shouted at his back. Daroach stopped, and his right ear flicked. Then, he looked over his shoulder slightly, narrowing his eyes into golden slits.

"Do you ever realize how _annoying_ you are?" he spat distastefully. I clenched my fist.

"Do you ever -"

"Why don't you shut up and think about it for once?" Daroach interrupted. I now stopped, anger suddenly gone. I honestly began to think. Was I really annoying? I talked a lot... And I asked a lot of questions...

Maybe I was annoying, after all. Maybe that's why the class always groaned when I raised my hand. Maybe that's why no one else besides Kirby and Link and Ike ever talks to me at school.

Maybe no one likes me.

Don't be stupid, Pikachu. There is Kirby and Yoshi. They don't find you annoying that's for sure. I'm not the one with the problem.

He is.

"Well, that's YOUR problem if you find me annoying!" My anger, once gone, suddenly came rushing through, pent up from my chest, "I don't see why you can't deal with it!" The gray leader eyes flashed dangerously.

"Sometimes you need to be considerate of others," His voice was level, but it was obvious that he was infuriated.

"You call hitting me with a metal stick 'considerate of others'?" I emphasized his quote with an exaggerated, dull voice and modeled a set of quotation marks with my fingers.

"You deserved it,"

"I did not!" I snapped back, "I cannot help but be me, comprende?" There was a loud "ha!" from the gray rat.

"You think the world revolves around _you_, Pikachu – that's your problem," he spat angrily, "you think that you are the only one with an opinion, and everyone thinks like you."

"Since when?" I was outraged to the point I was ready to explode, "If anyone has a problem, it's _you._ You think you're so cool in that hat of yours, and you think everyone can cater to your needs. And you think that since you had such a cruddy day, you can go mess up everyone else's, because that's what you're doing RIGHT NOW. Considerate of others? I think NOT." I breathed. Daroach stared at me coldly.

"I think," I continued, folding my arms, "you owe me an apology." The gray leader turned rigidly to glare at me from the side.

"I think not,"

What was his problem with not apologizing? It's as simple as "I'm sorry,". The end. Done! We could get on with life, but NO.

"Fine," I decided, finished with the very last straw, "I'm going to march you ALL the way to the police station in downtown on Halloween, where every unfortunate kid can see you!" There was a chuckle from Daroach, much to my annoyance.

"I'm not going outside on Halloween," he said smugly, "even if you try and make me."

"I will get you all the damned way to the deputy's office – ON HALLOWEEN," I threatened stubbornly. I was seriously, completely fed up with this guy.

"You know who you sound like?" Daroach snapped, "You sound just like Mom,"

I stopped short, mouth open.

Mom?

"Your mom or my mom?" I asked, now unsure of what was going on. Daroach's eyes, once narrowed with anger, suddenly opened wide with obvious horror. Silently, he mouthed,

"What did I say?" and Daroach, no longer focused on me, sat down dumbly, his eyes staring blankly in front of him. I squinted, trying to see what could possibly be going on in his mind. He must have noticed I was staring, for suddenly his eyes flicked up at me, and he turned away, scowling plainly. Still somewhat disgusted, I said,

"See you on Halloween," And I walked out of the cage, and up the stairs, passing by stunned Storo. I found Kirby just hanging by the trapdoor, with a stern expression on his face.

"Either way, I find that you guys are both a little extreme," I gave him a look. I wasn't particularly sure what I was feeling at the moment, but I gave him some kind of look. Seriousness? Maybe not. Exhaustion? Maybe. Kirby sighed.

"Are you serious about that Halloween thing?"

To be honest, I only meant it as an empty threat. To march Daroach down would bring the police up here in hot pursuit of Spinni, Storo, and Doc. Plus, I still have to find out what's with the "Mom," thing. And why those guys only steal Aniram stuff.

"No," was my response. Strangely, Kirby laughed. Confused, I looked at him.

"What?" I asked. He coughed, and smiled.

"Ah, nothing," he said, rocking back and forth on his feet, "it's just that you two are so... So alike sometimes," He chuckled again. Meanwhile, I just about had a heart attack. Wait – what? Me? Like DAROACH?

"There is NO WAY I'm as ignorant as he is," I pouted, pointing down the trapdoor. Kirby rolled his eyes and shook his head, smiling.

"Yeah, but you're both stubborn as heck," I stopped pouting, and seriously frowned.

He had a point. But don't tell him that.

\\\

"Hurry up, Link! You know what happens if your dad finds you late!" I shouted to the teen upstairs. Damn, how long does it seriously take to prepare a costume? For a Halloween party? At SCHOOL? Even Kirby was ready, which REALLY says something, because Kirby has to first select his spray paint color, and then find a matching hat. And he usually changes his mind. If anything, I would save all my beastly costume preparation for TOMORROW, when it is actually Halloween. Besides, Captain Falcon has a thing about time. Being a competitive racer, he is really picky about time and such. Always racing against the clock in some way, but never late.

"Do you have any idea how long this takes to put on?" he shouted back at me, his voice distant and muffled from behind closed doors.

"Of course I have no idea! I don't even know what the heck you are even wearing!" I yelled, "Just wear the green clothes you used to always wear! Your girlfriend won't give a crap!" I tapped the floor. Seriously, I thought guys didn't take long to dress.

"Does it seriously take you THAT long to put on some kind of pants and shirt?" I shouted again, hands on my hips.

"I took a nap!"

"Oh," I threw my hands up in the air, "THAT explains things," Kirby shook his head.

"What a procrastinator," he muttered. Yoshi higgled, and licked at my leopard-print sash. I yanked it away from him.

"Don't eat it! It'll give you a tummy ache," I chided. Yoshi brought his hands to his belly and groaned.

"I don' like tummy ache," he squealed. I wouldn't like it either. Besides, I can't have Yoshi making a poopy mess at the Halloween dance. I didn't intend myself to be a smelly caveman in front of my school. Kirby eyed my caveman costume.

"Nice," he said sarcastically, leaning on his cane. Since my nose wasn't big enough, I put the two halves of a bone through my right ear. It didn't look that bad, I suppose. I'd like to see Kirby do better.

"All right," came a voice from the top landing, "I'm done." I turned my head to look up at Link. He was dressed in what I had suggested – the green attire he used to wear. On his side, he wore a sheath with a wooden sword inside. He would have brought his own, but our school forbade the possession of weapons on campus. He descended down the stairs, and all four of us went to the car to go to the dance. The ride was quiet, all except for Yoshi's higgles. I thought to myself, "what can possibly happen with Yoshi around?" I expected some kind of wild fire, or an atomic explosion at worst.

It then occurred to me that we could just go to the Library if Yoshi gets too excited. He can calm down, and me and Kirby can actually do something interesting with our time. Only if I had the key with me... Hopefully, Mr. C will be there. I can't imagine why, but he may...

We reached school, as we climbed out of the car, the captain stuck his out of the window.

"What time should I pick you guys up?" We looked at each other, and Yoshi burped. Slowly, Link shrugged.

"I really don't know. No one ever specified," he mumbled. His father only shrugged, and nodded.

"Okay, fine," he said, "Call me when the party is over,"

"All right," Link, Kirby, and I agreed. Yoshi higgled, and Captain Falcon rolled up the window before driving away. All of us stood, all of our brains blanking out.

"Oi, Link!" I turned around and saw Ike running toward us. Around his neck hung a tattered red cape, and his light armoring clanked along with his movement. Oddly enough, just how Link looked completely natural in his green attire, Ike seemed to be completely native to his knightly adornments. His sheath bounced against his leg, long and heavy. My ears pricked forward as my electrical senses detected a heavy trace of metal on him. That sword was real. Ike skidded to a stop.

"C'mon, princess," he snapped jokingly, "where have you been? Out for a perm?" Link rolled his head on his neck toward Ike, and raised his eyes.

"Only you would know these things, Ike," he grinned, and chuckled. Ike then punched him on the shoulder in manly greeting, and his sword swung on his belt. I eyed it warily. Why on earth would he bring his REAL sword? Wasn't he afraid that he was going to get in trouble? Before I could ask, Link and him were striding off, talking. I looked to Kirby, who was frowning at Ike with a concerned look.

"Why do you think he brought his sword?" he suddenly asked, still scrutinizing. I only shrugged.

"That was my question,"

"Maybe he just wanted to show off – you know how some guys are," Kirby reasoned, finally taking his eyes off of the retreating figures. I nodded in agreement, before turning to my right to look at Yoshi.

Exactly where he wasn't at the moment. I frowned, and I looked around me.

"Where's Yoshi?"

From the distant rooftop, we heard a long "HA, HA, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" as a green thing jumped down from the building, and down towards the dinner table.

"Already?" I cried, grabbing the fur on my head.

"I got this," Kirby held up a berry tart. Suddenly, there was a sharp higgle from the courtyard, and a green blur zipped through the air in a perfectly, straight line. Before I could blink, Yoshi's mouth was around Kirby's arm. The dinosaur grinned. Kirby frowned, and looked up at him.

"Yoshi? My arm?"

"Oopsh," Yoshi higgled, and let go of Kirby's now slobbery arm. Kirby shook off the spittle, and straightened his top hat. I looked to him, and then to Yoshi, who now was rolling around on the ground.

"I'll have to keep a real good eye on you," I sighed.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm!" Yoshi higgled.

\\\

To our greatest luck, the light inside the school library was on, which meant that Mr. C was inside. He was sitting at the counter, his head bowed over an old fashioned pocket watch. It's golden chain was slowly winding through his fingers as he carefully observed the watch, his eyes scrunched and his eyebrows heavily set over them.

"Is he there?" Kirby asked from behind me, dragging Yoshi with him.

"Yeah," I answered, and then tapped on the door. Suddenly, Mr. C looked up, alarmed. Seeing that it was us and not some other students, he relaxed. From the side, Miss Astatine came walking to open the door to let us in.

"It's awfully late, you know," she smiled, stepping aside so we could pass by, "were you at the dance?" Kirby and I nodded, and Yoshi answered with a "YUSH!", executing a perfect twirl on one foot. Miss Astatine laughed.

"Then why did you guys come here? I thought the dance was really fun, this year," In response, I pointed to Yoshi. From the counter, there was a sharp click as Mr. C snapped his pocket watch shut. We all turned to look at him, and he smiled – a little wearily.

"That's a legitimate enough excuse," he said, "I don't know what you guys can do here, but I suppose I can let you stay for now..." His voice trailed off right when Yoshi zipped up to him and hugged him tightly around his legs.

"Thank you, Meeshter SEEEEEEEEE!" The dinosaur squealed, and higgled, swaying back and forth with his tongue out. Miss Astatine smiled.

"Isn't he adorable?" she sighed. Mr. C grumbled a little, and we chuckled as Yoshi sprung off and – as if with a homing signal – dashed straight to the Library. Mr. C looked up and called after him.

"Make sure you don't go to the right! I'm cleaning that area!" Miss Astatine gave the man a look.

"Really?"

"I'm going to clean it, Astatine," he reassured her half-heartedly. Miss Astatine didn't look quite convinced. I wasn't convinced either – the last time Mr. C talked about cleaning things himself was when I tried to go back to that hexagonal thing again. He still hasn't cleaned up that place (the skull is still there, as well as a good inch of dust). He just sits at the counter, studying an oversized pocket watch. Sometimes he writes a few things, and walks around to get a few books. His behavior and activities now were drastically different from when he was teaching DO Fenses. He seemed... Old. Almost like an ancient turtle in a young man's body. Not only he became inactive, he became almost secretive. He would always be alarmed and confused, versus his tranquility and assuredness during DO Fenses. His secretiveness now versus his open honesty back then.

Before I headed deeper into the Library, following my friends, I heard Miss Astatine ask in a quiet voice,

"Why are you hiding things from me?" I peeked over my shoulder, and saw her at the counter, holding Mr. C's hands. Mr. C looked up and wearily smiled.

"Why would I hide things from you?"

"I know you better than that," was her quick reply, "I know you're hiding something," Defeated, Mr. C sighed, and pushed her hands away gently.

"Comorag?"

"Tina, dear," his voice was nearly a whisper, "it's really, _really_ complicated to explain..."

"I can handle it -"

"Astatine," suddenly Mr. C stood up, "you really shouldn't be here. With me. I love you, but..." His voice trailed off. Miss Astatine also stood up straight.

"But what?" The two were silent for a moment. Mr. C shook his head then, and turned away from the lady.

"You won't understand..." Miss Astatine folded her arms, and her expression became stern.

"My previous boyfriend said that to me, you know," her tongue was sharp, "He said he would come back one day, but no. He didn't."

"This is different, Astatine..."

From deep within the forest of bookshelves, my friends called to me. I decided not to stick around any longer.

\\\

While I was exploring, I found an old closet along the back wall of the Library. I wonder what kinds of stuff is in there – maybe a whole human skeleton, this time. All I know for sure that could be in there is dust. Lots of dust. With this door, the handle was built for human use, so I had to jump up to open it. As my claws caught onto the handle, I half-expected a mountain of old junk – an old globe, boxes, scrolls, canvas portraits, heck even suits of armor – to pour out with a thundering crash over me.

But the door swung open with an echo, revealing dark shadows. Loose particles of dust whooshed around and slowly settled on the floor. Blinking, I noticed that bare shelves lined the sides – empty and forlorn, except for the company of two, thick, leather-bound books. The books' isolation from the rest of the Library made me curious as to why they were by themselves in an empty closet. Gingerly, I stepped forward. Dust swirled about and parted at my feet. I stared up, and grabbed onto the rungs of the lowest shelf, and climbed up. My paws felt my destination, and I pulled myself onto it. In front of my face were the two books, stacked neatly on top of each other. I squinted – on top of the books, obscured by a fine layer of dust, was a curling piece of paper.

"Pikachu? Where are you?" came Kirby's voice, drifting from a different part of the Library, "Pikachu?" I reached out, and carefully removed the paper from the books. There was a clean space where the paper once was, and from the light outside, I caught a glimmer. In gold engraving, was a C-Y-G-N. The rest of it was covered by dust.

"Pikachu?"

"I'll be out in a minute, Kirby," I shouted to him, so he can hear me clearly. I swear I heard him exhale sharply.

"You better – I can't find Yoshi again," Wait – what?

"Again?" I cried.

"Hurry up, Pikachu,"

"Wait a sec', okay?" I shook my head, "Jeez..." My attention returned to the paper. Yoshi was alright unless he toppled over a bookshelf, and got squished. But then again, he was squished by a falling piano, and he turned out alright. He came out of the wreck with a mouthful of keys, and was grinning. However, I don't think Mr. C would appreciate him wrecking havoc here. I held my hands carefully under the paper, not knowing how old or in what kind of condition it was in. I blew on it, sending dust flying in a small plume of white.

I noticed it was a letter to Mr. C. Wasn't it illegal to read another person's mail? I hesitated, but I couldn't hold my curiosity back. Why was this letter still here, and not in the trash? And why was there a lot of dust on it? How long have these books, and this note, been here?

It read:

_Mr. Collech,_

_ These books belongs to two knights, Sir Cygnus and Sir Matthew Dicere. Sir Chief Magarak told me to send these to you. I hope it survived the ocean trip safely._

_ I know it's an age-old policy to burn the books belonging to knights who have died, and I understand that by not burning them presents a real threat to the Academy. I, too, have seen what could happen if portals are not kept secret, regrettably. If anything happens to the Pokemon world, now, it would be my fault. I tried my best._

_ However, I hope that you would kindly sympathize my situation and keep these books safe for me. As far as we know, Sir Cygnus and Sir Dicere are missing, but not reported dead. The Council have assumed they have perished, for they have both were missioned to some of the most dangerous areas of the Star Universe, and have not returned for a long while._

_ But I knew them for a long while, now. We were roommates, and suffered through squirehood together. Knowing them, Sir Cygnus and Sir Dicere are lost, but alive. They will return. And I want these books to be here when they do. _

_ I hope you can kindly grant me this wish. I believe in my friends. They are still alive – somewhere._

_ Thank you,_

_ Sir Harpieyrh Talons _

From over the edge of the curling paper, I stared at the books. And then I noticed the date. According to it, this letter was written...

… Twenty years ago.

And no one has claimed them. Something inside my heart felt sorry for Sir Harpieryh Talons. Maybe his friends were dead after all, and Mr. C had forgotten that these books were still here, waiting for their dead owners.

Speaking of Mr. C, I thought he was around twenty-seven. But Mr. C must've been at least of adult age when he received this, because he was obviously working with some kind of authority status. If not, he was at least addressed as "Mr."

Mr. C looked so young... But apparently he looks much younger than he really is.

"Are you coming, Pikachu?" Kirby's voice drifted into my thoughts, reminding me of where I was in the world. Hastily, I laid the note back on top of the two books. On the dusty surface of the topmost book, I wrote with my finger, "RIP".

I followed my friend's voice to a group of tables. He was standing atop one, tapping his foot impatiently. Sitting with him was Yoshi, who was peering sadly at a slender figure across from him. She had her head in her arms, and her body shook from sobs. I frowned, and jumped onto the table. I crawled up, and cocked my head to the side.

"Miss... Astatine?" There was a loud sniff, and Miss Astatine roughly wiped her eyes with a fist.

"Are..." Well, obviously, she wasn't all right. "What happened?" The lady lifted her head from her arms slightly. I saw a faint streak of eyeliner, washed over by a glaze of salty tears.

"You're too young for all of this," was her choked reply, and she buried herself in her arms again. Yoshi sat up straight, and his lip trembled. I looked at him worriedly. If he starts crying, we might as well create a saltwater pool right here. Thinking on my feet, I told him,

"Yoshi, find something to cheer Miss Astatine up," Suddenly, Yoshi brightened.

"Yesh!" and he scurried off, sniffing for a good book. His green hands grabbed eagerly at one, and he opened it up to read.

"June twenty-fith, thirteen-fo'ty-nine. De Black Plague reachesh London. I heard many pee-pull died so fa'. It won' be long befo'e it reachesh -"

"Too depressing," Kirby interrupted, "try looking for something else," Yoshi skimmed the books, tracing his line of vision with movements of his head. He reached out, and grabbed another book. Suddenly he screamed, and dropped the book on the floor. Miss Astatine looked up abruptly.

"Something wrong?" she sniffed, wiping away a strand of tears. I looked over the edge of the table. On the opened pages of the book was a grotesque drawing of a decapitated head, with black boils and wide, gaping black holes. The eyes were rolled in different directions. My stomach lurched.

"Find something else," I gasped. But Yoshi had already found something.

"Ooh," he sighed, "Shiny..." I looked up to where he was going, and felt a pulsation go through me. I felt dread.

Something in my heart was dreading something really,

_really,_

terrible.

Yoshi sniffed at a square on the floor, it's outline obscured by a coat of dust. Eagerly, he blew it off, and his green hands reached out, fingers prying open a tile from the floor. With the sound of stone against stone, a clean cut, dark compartment was revealed. I shivered. Not because my body felt a cold wind, but inside me something chilled my heart. Miss Astatine watched, wide-eyed with tears on hold.

"Look!" Yoshi's hands reached in and pulled up a thick box, made of black material. At first, his fingers tried wrenching it open, trying to get at the prize inside. Seeing that the box will not open, Yoshi contemplated, carefully turning the box in his hands. After a few seconds, his eyes brightened and he grinned.

"I know!" he cried excitedly, and his hands began to fly all over the smooth, black box, his complicated pokes, twists, punches, and twiddling blurred by speed. So, to open this box, it was like a puzzle. Smart, but not smart enough for Yoshi, who happened to love puzzles. And unfortunately for whoever was attempting to hide their treasure, Yoshi was extremely talented at solving puzzles.

There was a click.

The lid opened, and Yoshi's face was bathed in golden light. His eyes watered, his passion for sparkly, shiny things satisfied by what was beheld in the box.

"Oooh! Pretty..." he sighed dreamily, staring at it. He held the open box closer to his nose so that it touched -

Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his pupils contracted. Blink. Yoshi dropped the box, and fell over, asleep. Alarmed, Miss Astatine stood up.

"Is he all right?" She asked, concerned with Yoshi's sudden fall. Kirby only shrugged and answered mildly,

"Yoshi is probably overwhelmed by how shiny that thing is," he gestured a pink arm to the box, "knowing him, he would probably do that," I looked to the golden light, flooding from its black container, my eyes squinting from its intensity. It looked so warm... And yet I felt so cold. From beside me, Miss Astatine stood up to investigate the light. She sniffed, roughly brushed away tears with a fist, and squinted at the box.

"It is a necklace," she confirmed, tilting her head to the side. She squatted, scrutinizing it for a moment, "It's a really pretty one, at that," Meanwhile, Kirby had gone down to check on Yoshi. His pink hand poked the dinosaur's white cheek.

"Hey," he muttered to himself, "that's funny..." I then went down to sit beside Kirby. He was frowning, looking at Yoshi with a set expression.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked. Yoshi, on many occasions, dropped dead asleep without warning. How was this time different? From behind us, Miss Astatine was aside with wonder.

"Why would Comorag hide something like this?" Her hands gently reached down to scoop the breathtaking, shining handiwork, "It's so beautiful..." I turned around to glance at her, hoping to see what kind of beauty this necklace really was. As the light was lifted from the confines of the box, velvet spilling out from it, I raised a hand to shield my eyes.

Miss Astatine had only held that necklace for two seconds and a half before her eyes widened and her irises became unnaturally small. Her violently trembling hands released the necklace, and it fell limply back onto the velvet. My eyes focused back on Miss Astatine, horror-struck. The golden light from underneath her lit her face with a bright, vivid white and it casted jet black shadows from facial contours in a freak contrast. She stared right at me, right into my eyes, and screamed. She screamed as though she had a banshee's vocal cords, as though three trains were screeching to a halt in the twilight zone.

I was purely terrified.

I watched Miss Astatine's eyes roll back into her head, the whiteness of her eyes glistening, and the darkness of her veins throbbing. She threw her head back, so far back as though she no longer possessed a spine. From her throat erupted a bloodcurdling scream – earsplitting screeches in cacophonous dissonance that was accompanied by a sick, wet throttle.

My hand reached out, and grabbed onto Kirby's for dear life. What was happening?

Then, Miss Astatine collapsed on the ground, pale and lifeless. Everything grew silent, except for our panicky, deep breaths. We were both trembling, so afraid; both too stunned to scream, too stunned to cry.

I heard running steps approaching us, and I looked up, frightened. Slowly, Mr. C's running slowed to a stop. His eyes fell on Miss Astatine's still body, then Yoshi's, and then landed heavily on the bright, glowing necklace, lying mundanely on its velvet cloth. His face was of extreme horror.

"Oh no..." he breathed, "Oh no, no, no..." Suddenly coming back to his senses, Mr. C hurriedly knelt down towards the necklace.

"Don't!" I whimpered. He looked up briefly and I cringed, fearing he would touch it, too. Mr. C went back to his business, and wrapped the necklace in the velvet cloth, being very careful not to touch it. Quickly, the golden light was tucked away neatly. With shaking hands, Mr. C then held the bundle up to me.

"Take it," his voice was heavy. My heart nearly jumped out of my throat.

"No!" I cried, and I held tighter to Kirby's hand. My other one brushed Yoshi's. Mr. C continued to hold out the bundle, and ignored my protest.

"It's no longer safe here," his voice seemed to degrade as he spoke, "Take it, and make sure you don't give this to just anybody. Don't let just anybody have it. Don't touch it directly. Leave while you can," Without warning, he shoved the bundle in my arms, and then gripped my sides firmly, to stop my shaking.

"I want you to run,"

"But -"

"Do it! Go!" Mr. C released me, and I stumbled back. I glanced back at Kirby, and then at Yoshi on the floor. I was dumbfounded – what was going on?

From behind Mr. C, Miss Astatine stirred.

"Look!" I cried, starting to feel relieved, "Miss Astatine is alive!" I laughed – even though all her screaming was freaky beyond belief, she was alright now, and everything is going to be fine. Tension fell off from me.

Mr. C paled dramatically as Miss Astatine stirred again. I stopped laughing.

And then, Miss Astatine began to writhe and squirm with her body, her face still tranquil like a dead woman's face, and her limbs flopped loosely.

"Run," was Mr. C's voice. I was frozen to the spot.

Miss Astatine's body still squirmed and wriggled, and suddenly began to protrude around the stomach. Lumps grew and shrunk rapidly. Areas from beneath the skin began to bulge.

… As though something was moving inside.

"Run,"

I looked back at Yoshi.

"Just run,"

Miss Astatine's paled skin began to stretch grotesquely, and the epidermis began to split open, revealing sickly pink flesh, which was also being stretched like silly putty. Muscle fibers began to split apart as bulges jerked about. From inside the body, I heard the ribs break.

"Run," came Mr. C's voice. I was petrified. I only watched Miss Astatine's corpse slowly become deformed and mutilated.

There seemed to be a tough layer of tissue that didn't break from the stretch. Translucent, I could see a dark figure stretch, pushing its head against the membrane in an effort to break out. It stretched farther, and farther, and farther -

There was a sound of air rushing as a small tear opened up near the bottom, close to the rest of the body. The bulging stopped, and the figure crumpled down. Silence – only the faint trickle of body juices disturbed it.

Suddenly, the body exploded. I felt blood spatter across my face, and slippery, slimy body tissues slap across my arms. A long figure erupted, emerging head first, jaws opened wide, screaming with a thousand voices, none in tune with each other. The thing was long and serpentine; from waist down, its body was made of a snake's skeleton, tinged with bits of flesh and scales. On top of that was the skeleton of a human torso, bones somehow moving with torn, clinging muscles. And on top of that was a head. Mangled, wet hair grew from it in shocks of sickening gray and white matted down with blood and entrails. Jaws are agape, unhinged like a snakes, and filled with long fangs. A darting tongue hung out the mouth. The skin was leathery, and was stretched around the neck like a person who is forever grimacing.

But the face had no expression.

It had no face at all.

The thing hissed, and its thick tongue flicked. I looked down its gaping mouth.

I saw nothing but darkness.

Slowly, the thing faced me. My heart stopped beating.

"It wants the necklace," said Mr. C in a low voice. Suddenly, my heart started beating again, kicking into panicked overdrive.

"I can't take it!" I screamed, "You!" I thrusted out my arms, holding the cloth bundle. The thing hissed and snapped its jaws with a bone-clacking sound. Slowly, it unwound from its coils and started to slither towards me. From behind it, Mr. C picked up the black box and threw. The box sailed through the air, and hit the thing squarely on the back of his faceless head. There was a terrible hiss.

Quick as lightning, the thing darted to Mr. C, and with a clawed hand, hit him across the chest. The force knocked him of his feet, and sent him flying into a bookcase. Books came tumbling down, and the shelves began to topple over like dominoes. It hissed again, and turned back to face me. I looked down at Yoshi, and then at Kirby.

What to do?

The thing began slithering towards us again, its long, thick tongue flickering. I looked down at Yoshi's helpless figure.

"It only wants the necklace, Pikachu!" came Mr. C's voice. He stood from a pile of books, and held a chair high over his head. With great force, he threw the chair at the thing. It slammed against the back of the monster, which crumpled from the momentum. It lay on the floor, stunned for a second.

"Yoshi will be fine – just AAAAAAAAAAAH!" the rest of his words were drowned out by a muffled scream as the monster lunged, its elongated skeleton hurtling with full force, its bones rattling from the speed. Jaws open, Mr. C and the monster met in a headlong tackle. Dark, red fluid sprayed, exploding like a tomato on a wall. The skeleton writhed around for a few seconds, before leaving a dismembered body, where the legs were torn away and left laying. Mr. C's head was resting in his arms, where a dark, crimson pool was collecting beneath. The monster hissed, as if satisfied, but still coiled tensely from irritation. Its skeletal fingers flexed.

And calmly, in a reptilian way, it slowly raised its head in my direction.

I was still frozen in fear.

I noticed some movement from below it. With shaking shoulders and ragged, labored breathing, I saw Mr. C raise his head. The light caught the sheen of red moisture that soaked exposed facial muscle. More than half of his face was torn off. Where his left eye once was was a black hole. With his other eye, Mr. C gazed at me intensely.

"Run," he commanded, voice strained, "and don't look back!" I stared at him, my feet beginning to feel again. I looked down at Yoshi, torn. Kirby tugged on my arm. The thing hissed, and began to uncoil.

"RUN!"

And we ran.

* * *

**Chapter got too long. Awesome stuff is coming soon, I promise!**


	31. Chapter Thirty

**Chapter Thirty**

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"What are you doing out here?" was Doc's question when he saw Daroach in Kirby's room. Doc had gotten lease from the cage, and was free to go wherever he pleased, as long he wasn't seen by any other people. However, Daroach hadn't.

"I wanted a change of scenery," was his excuse, "and I need more paper. And a new pencil." He made for the door when Doc warned,

"I wouldn't go out there – there's too many people," So, Daroach let his paw drop to his side. He didn't complain, but simply drifted back to the trapdoor. On his way, he stopped, hovering over a wickerwork basket stuffed with pillows and a wrinkled blanket. He frowned and his eyes narrowed. Doc, seeing Daroach's scrutinizing look, raised his eyebrows.

"That's Pikachu's basket," he informed him. Daroach nodded absent-mindedly. Unexpectedly, he bent over and his paw reached between the pillows. Alarmed, Doc asked,

"What are you doing? Planting a bomb?" No, answered when Daroach brought his paw back up; on the tips of his long claws was a glimmering, red thing. Doc squinted. It was a ring.

Daroach was looking at the ruby ring. Suddenly, he remembered it worn by the creamy-brown paw that belonged to his mother. In memory of her, the gray rat shuddered, closing his eyes for a moment. Carefully, he turned to look at the ring from the inside. He saw it. No doubt, it was hard to miss that signature, calligraphic A. He just wondered how it got here...

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a strong feeling deep inside of him. Daroach suddenly felt... Fear? What day was this – October the thirtieth? Sudden memories of a great tree with a sagging, dark eyes filled his vision, and he shuddered. Briefly, he glanced outside the bedroom window.

"What is it?" Doc asked, seeing the perplexed look on the gray rat's face. Daroach fingered the ring between his claws, and thought deeply. Something inside told him that...

"I think Pikachu's in trouble," Much out of his dark mood, Doc burst into laughter. His green mustache trembled, and the doctor's goggles became askew.

"Since when have you've been so concerned about Pikachu?" he chuckled. Daroach's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Since Mom kicked her out of the house," he answered darkly. He glanced down at the ruby ring for a moment, and then squeezed it in his paw. He turned around and made for the window, purpose in his eyes. Alarmed, Doc asked,

"Where do you think you're going?" Daroach paused for a moment, in front of the window. He looked over his shoulder, red hat low over his amber eyes.

"I don't know," he answered slowly, "wherever Pikachu is, that is where I will go." The seriousness of Daroach's tone scared Doc a little. Sure, Daroach rarely joked around, but when he was _this_ urgent, something had to be wrong. What made the gray rat such a good thief is that he had gut feeling – which was always correct. So if Pikachu was in trouble, she must be.

"Where is your hammer? And scepter?" Doc asked. Daroach looked back and smiled wryly.

"Hammerspace," was his reply.

"How... Bad do you think this is?" The gray rat shrugged.

"I have no clue," he answered, and then added somberly, "but I fear the worst,"

"Do you want us to come with you?" Doc asked, sitting up straight. Daroach shook his head.

"No. If I need you guys, you'll know," After thinking it through, Doc nodded. With that, Daroach disappeared briefly, materializing outside. With a flutter of his red cloak, the gray leader flew off.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

It was very difficult to run on two feet, but I ran. I didn't look back. I didn't have to, because I could plainly hear the monster's throttling, and it's dry, dead scales rubbing on the ground. We ran through the detectors by the library door, and they began to beep shrilly. An irritated snarl came from behind us, but we didn't look back. Kirby, not taking the time to try and reach the handle, kicked down the door. Glass shattered everywhere, but we kept running. My feet suddenly stung, but I didn't mind. Kirby was running ahead, towards the courtyard. Classmates in all sorts of costumes milled about in a tight mass.

"COMING THROUGH!" Kirby screamed at them, and then looked back at me, "PIKACHU, HURRY!" I clutched the bundle to my chest, and pushed with all my might to run. Something cold and wet lapped at my tail.

"YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" I yelled, thinking of Yoshi, "NEVER!" My feet pounded on the ground harder and more rapidly as I desperately tried to put more space between me and the monster's tongue. People at the courtyard started to turn and face us.

Aw hell, those guys are REALLY going to get freaked out.

… And I hope they don't get in the way. I don't want to see another torn body again. We really should have ran in a different direction, but it was too late now.

"EXCUSE ME!" I cried, but my voice was soon drowned out by screams erupting from the dancers. Girls fled from our path, and so did some guys. The other idiots went, "Whoa, that is TOATALLY awesome animatronics! Rock on!"

"DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?" I screamed at them, "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" I heard a loud hiss and a screech as a person bumped into the monster, a condemnation to death. A sudden vision of Mr. C torn, bleeding face, his missing eye flashed before my eyes.

"Kirby! Catch!" I threw the bundle with faith, and it sailed through the air. Kirby turned around and jumped. The velvet unraveled slightly, and a beam of golden light shone in the night.

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" I cried to him. Kirby landed, and hastily wrapped up the bundle again.

"RUN!" and he darted away from the courtyard altogether, running into a dark hallway. I then whipped around, hoping that Kirby had distracted the monster from the people. It's serpentine body coiled, and then lunged from the ground, sailing over Halloween decorations and cringing dancers. Good – now it was time to get that thing away from Kirby. I shuddered, wondering if I'll end up like Mr. C.

But if Mr. C gave up his life for that necklace, then it has to be important.

I picked up a cupcake from the dessert table, and threw it as hard as I could. To my vast surprise, it had found its mark, splatting into a spray of chocolate and orange icing as it hit its arm.

I prepared to be torn in half. I watched it come at me, mouth open wide, closer by every millisecond.

At the last moment, when the thing was literally centimeters from my face, its head suddenly jerked aside from my vision as a gleaming, golden thing slammed into its ribs. For a horrific second, I had thought that Kirby had thrown the necklace back at the monster. But as it tumbled on the ground, its long, bony tail flailing, I saw Ike flip over its body and land neatly behind it. In one of his hands was the gold – a long, broad blade, with just as much deadly beauty as the necklace. He brought his other hand on the hilt, and held the sword in front of him as the monster raised its head.

"Let me deal with this, Pikachu," his voice was calm, "Go get help," And with that, he gave a great yell, swinging his sword at the leathery neck. The monster recoiled backwards in the nick of time, and then struck at Ike, mouth open wide. Ike suddenly flipped his sword horizontally and shoved it so that the teeth locked onto the blade. He yelled again, and spun the sword quickly to the side, pivoting on his hand. The head suddenly jerked down, and its neck twisted grotesquely with a sickening _crack!_ The monster screeched, and fell away, rolling over several times. It rested, belly down on the ground for a moment, before raising on his long, snake body, waving from side to side like a giant cobra skeleton. It's head was bent at an odd angle, but it's jaws still worked. Growling, the monster threw its head to the other side. _POP!_ With a shake, the head was back in place.

"What the fuck," Ike muttered to himself, and gripped his sword. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and did a double take.

"What the hell are you doing here, still? Go get help!" He waved a free arm wildly, gesturing away from him. From behind his turned back, the monster opened up its arms and claws, rattling its many bones, and made for a strike. Before I can yell, Ike's eyes flicked to the side, and he swung his sword to meet the impact. The collision was colossal, but Ike didn't even twitch an eye. He held his ground firm, and slid back slightly on his two, strong feet. He broke away from contact, sliding his sword from its teeth with a sound of metal skimming on stone. With one, quick and fluid motion, Ike held his blade with two hands above the head, and brought the hilt down. There was a roaring screech, and over it, Ike shouted,

"Go, Pikachu, go!" I turned around and ran.

The only place I could think of going was back to the house. I ran and ran on the asphalt road that led me back. It was then when I suddenly felt so tired, and smelled the tangy, metallic whiff of my blood on the ground. My feet stung, embedded with glass. Running on all fours, I ran as far as my strength and willpower can take me, running with only one thought: run.

But my strength was depleting, and I tripped suddenly, falling flat on my chest and chin. I scrambled to get up, fear and urgency driving me.

But how can I run the ten or fifteen miles to my house?

Who cares – my mind was numb. I got onto my feet, panting. Below me, my blood was collecting. It was a disheartening sight. I sighed, and looked up and out across the long road home.

Wait – is that really who I think it is? I didn't waste another second to make sure – I ran. When I was close enough, I jumped and grabbed hold of Daroach's soft, furry neck. I held on as visions of Miss Astatine screaming, Mr. C's desperate, bloody, torn face, and the faceless monster bursting open from Miss Astatine's abdomen started to flash in a gruesome slideshow in mind's eye. And I constantly heard that unearthly scream along with Mr. C's cry of pain.

It was all too much...

"Pikachu," Daroach's voice was gentle but concerned, "what happened?" He easily held me in his two paws, against the crook of his neck. I didn't care about Daroach's sudden change of personality. I began to cry, and I muffled my grieved wails in his neck. Miss Astatine and Mr. C are both dead for sure. Miss Astatine died in grief over Mr. C. And how she died... She never knew what was coming. Mr. C died in anxiety, not knowing whether the necklace would be safe for sure; died in grief, because I know he really loved Miss Astatine; and Mr. C died alone, with all these feelings and pains... Or maybe Yoshi woke up.

Oh wait. Yoshi touched the thing, too. He's gone.

And Kirby is running somewhere.

So I cried, long and hard. There was a sharp pain at the bottom of my foot.

"Pikachu," Daroach had pulled a shard of glass, and tossed it aside, "please tell me what happened," I sniffed, and tried to get my mouth to talk. But I only blubbered, and ended up crying again. I was so shocked, so scared...

"Pardon me for interrupting this touching scene," came a chilled, clipped voice from above, "but I'm intrigued..." We both looked around.

"Over here," said the voice again. Then I saw it in the tree, hidden in its dappled shadows. At first, I saw two points of amber light, but then I caught the gleam off of a metallic plate, where it was cut in the shape of a V, framing the glowing eyes. Around its short, round figure was a cape, wrapped tightly. Its shoulder plates were hunched high, and it peered at me with a keen stare. It was so... Hypnotizing. Daroach narrowed his eyes.

"Nice to see you again," he said, tersely, "Meta Knight," There was a flutter of a cape, and Meta Knight landed lightly on the ground with a _clink _of metallic shoes. For some reason, Daroach held me more protectively, turning me away from the newcomer slightly. Meta Knight looked much shorter from up here, but his eyes had this intimidating feeling to their stare. It was... Freaky.

"Nice to see you again, Daroach," came Meta Knight's reply, formal and cold, "Now, may I speak to this darling little creature of yours?" Daroach was quick to reply.

"Her name is Pikachu," and held me closer to him. Meta Knight drew his cape around him again, as if chilled by his own cold voice.

"Oh, my apologies," making a small nod before continuing, "Now, may I ask you Pikachu, 'where is it?'"

"Where's what?" I asked, dumbfounded. Meta Knight narrowed his eyes.

"You know what I mean,"

And then it struck me – the necklace. But how did he know about it? But then again, taking another look at his eyes, that stare looked highly capable of reading minds. Words got stuck in my throat, and I moved my mouth to speak.

"I-I-I don't know where it is," I stammered. Daroach looked at me, surprised.

"What?" he asked. Suddenly, Meta Knight's eyes flashed brightly.

"The necklace you've always been after, you fool," he sounded rather impatient, and his eyes flicked back to me, "now, Pikachu, you mean to say that you lost the necklace?" I also began to feel annoyed. I glared at Meta Knight.

"You need to watch your attitude, man," I snapped. Almost immediately, I wished I hadn't said anything at all, for Meta Knight gave me a stare that could've set someone on fire. His eyes flashed bright red.

"You need to watch yours," he hissed. I fought back an urge to stick my tongue out at him. Instead, I decided to answer his question.

"I gave the necklace to Kirby," I stated matter-of-factly. Meta Knight's eyes flashed again. He looked like he was about to spit something at me (somehow with his mask on) but held back. He gave an irritated sigh.

"Do you know where he is?" he asked. I thought for a moment. Do I really trust this guy? He's a REAL butt-face, even more bootier-face-ier than Daroach. And Mr. C said I shouldn't give the necklace to just _anybody. _But... There was a certain memory from several years back about me, Kirby and newspapers. Wait a minute.

"You are Burger Boy!" I squealed, pointing at him excitedly, "Oh, I remember you!" I imagined Burger Boy was frowning underneath his mask.

"I don't believe we have met before," he said, undoubtedly feeling a little awkward. I shook my head.

"Nope. You were on a newspaper I saw," I said. Kirby seemed to respect Meta Knight. I don't know why he would, with that nasty attitude, but he does. But would Kirby trust him...? And plus, he seems to be a little pushy. I decided that I didn't like this guy.

"Would you prefer to have Kirby torn to pieces by some kind of demon, or have me help you get the necklace to a safer place?" his voice entered my arena of contemplation.

"I'd rather have you help me, of course," I snapped.

"Then where is Kirby?" Yep. Definitely pushy.

"I don't know," I answered honestly, "He just... Ran," Meta Knight blinked slowly, as if to control his temper.

"So," he said quietly, "we have to find him?" Now, there was something in that tone of voice that I REALLY didn't like. It sounded awfully creepy. Awfully dangerous. Something that would sit pretty and then ambush you from behind. I narrowed my eyes.

"How can I trust you?"

There was a moment of silence before Meta Knight spoke again.

"You can ask Daroach over there..." I turned to look Daroach in the face. The gray rat blinked and met my gaze. The shadows his hat made over his face seemed to grow darker.

"I'd hate to admit it," he said with obvious distaste, looking down on Meta Knight, "but you can trust him with your life. He's entitled to _keep it,_" he emphasized sharply, baring his teeth a little, as if threatening him to not make any wrong moves. I frowned at him.

"Would you trust him?" I asked. Daroach closed his eyes and sighed.

"I rarely trust anyone," he answered ambiguously. Obviously getting impatient, Meta Knight interrupted,

"I swear that I will deliver the necklace to safety, and that I will protect you and your friends, Pikachu," Unlike the other times he had spoken, Meta Knight now sounded like a real knight. One that was valiant. One that you could actually trust with your life. I relaxed.

"Do you trust me?" he then asked. I gave him a firm nod.

"Good," he said, sounding satisfied, "Now, let's go find Kirby,"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Kirby didn't exactly know how far he ran, but he guessed it was around three. But three miles where? The pink puffball decided that he could just take a quick break to look around properly. Skidding to a halt, he panted, and slowly turned around on the spot. He had ran into a forest, perhaps part of the the one that was in the backyard. It was a large forest, that expanded across many neighborhoods and rural pastures. There were dark shadows all around, but he could see just fine. To a regular person, they would hardly be able to see at all, perhaps even nothing but blackness. Kirby took another quick glance around him, and listened and felt for the vibrations of the monster chasing after him. He saw nothing, heard nothing, and felt nothing.

So, he was alone. But where? Kirby sighed, and wrapped the silk cloth around the necklace tighter. He wondered how long he must run and where to run to in order to get this to a safe place. But where would a safe place be...?

Suddenly it came to Kirby.

The Castle in the Air, of course. In this entire world, the Castle was the safest place, for no one else has ever been able to locate it, it's high above the earth, and there is Mario and Luigi. They would know what to do with it. If they could build a colossal citadel that no one else has ever found, then they can hide this small necklace. All Kirby had to do was get back to the house and take a pipe over there.

But where was the house? Kirby glanced around again, trying to determine his location. Then, he did a double-take. High up in a tree, he swore he thought he saw a dark figure with a bright, white eye, and purple cape. But when he looked now, the figure was gone.

Was he hallucinating? All that horror from earlier that night must be getting to him... No. Kirby never hallucinated, and he knew it. His eyes never played tricks. Kirby tapped his mouth, wondering if he should pull out a sword.

Another flash, off to the side.

Immediately, Kirby knew he was being followed. He only knew one guy who would have a bright, white eye like that.

He then realized how vulnerable he was, out in the open. Quickly, he dove to the side and into the underbrush, just as a dark shadow swooped overhead. From his mouth, Kirby took out a sword. Cautiously, he crept backwards into the darkness.

"You can't hide, Kirby," Dark Matter's voice was malicious, "come out, come out," His v-shaped mask framed a plane of darkness, in which hovered a glowing, white eye, a slit for its pupil. Over his mask was a dark substance, looking very much like shocks of jet-black hair. Below his mask hovered a dark, violet chest plate, and to his sides shoulder plates of matching color, trimmed in silver. Hanging from his nonexistent shoulders was a tattered, purple cape – where it opened at the front was marked with a triangular, red and gold pattern. His blade glinted by his side, hovering in midair. Kirby's grip on the necklace tightened as he backed further away, trying not to make a sound. Though Dark Matter lacked ears and an eye, he had cunning vision and hearing.

"Be a good boy, Kirby, and bring the necklace to me," his calm, smooth tone suddenly became irritated, rising in pitch and anger, "otherwise you and the rest of your friends will never live to see another sunrise!" Impatiently, Dark Matter slashed the air with his sword.

"Come out Kirby and face me! I know you are here – bring me the necklace and I will leave you alone," Yeah right, thought Kirby sarcastically. He took another step backwards and then _crack!_ A twig broke from beneath him. Dark Matter turned slowly on the spot, and all of a sudden, their eyes met. At that moment, Kirby ran behind a tree, hoping to use some cover in order to get a better advantage. Quickly glancing at the bark, Kirby took a step backward, and then ran. He made a few feet up the tree before he felt himself slipping. Quickly, he pushed off and grabbed onto the neighboring tree. Dark Matter's eyes flicked over to the pink warrior and growled in frustration. His cape around him fluttered and the blade spun a full, quick circle before he slashed diagonally across him. From the silver blade came a half-moon crescent of light that curved out and off from the blade. With shuddering force, the crescent smashed into Kirby's tree, causing wood to splinter and fly apart at contact. Kirby felt his feet slip a little, but he managed to push off in a back flip, and grab hold to a branch with one of his hands, while the other held onto the precious cargo. Almost immediately, Kirby let go, and jumped on to the next tree, just as the slicing curve of a sword beam cut through the space where he once was. There was cursing from Dark Matter.

Kirby knew it wouldn't be long before Dark Matter came after him in person. Climbing the tree to reach the branches, he decided to stay in the darkness of the canopy, where he could have a good aerial view. Meanwhile, he pulled a flare from his mouth, and with some help of his Fire Hat, the fuse was lit. Kirby let go and the flare rocketed into the air with red smoke and sparks.

He couldn't fight and get the necklace to safety by himself, despite all of the experience he had when he was younger. It was too risky. He had to get help.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"How did you know about the necklace?" I found myself asking Daroach as he carried me along, "I mean, you said earlier that – OUCH!" The gray rat removed the last shard of glass from my foot. From beside us, Meta Knight cast us an annoyed glance. When he looked away, I stuck my tongue out at him. There was a sharp poke in my side.

"Ow! Hey!" I cried, glaring at Daroach. Daroach gestured to Meta Knight, and shook his head, telling me that making fun of him might not be such a great idea. I pursed my lips, but did what I was told. Instead, I went back to my original question Daroach had avoided for the past several times.

"How did you know about the necklace?" I asked again, "Meta Knight said earlier that you were looking for it," Daroach seemed to stop floating forward for a second as a daze passed over him, his eyes focused on a space between him and the ground. I waved a hand in front of his nose, and then he blinked. Daroach looked back at me and sighed. No answer.

"That's enough," Meta Knight snapped, "Just tell her your side of the story, Daroach – I'm getting a headache," I mocked him behind his back and stuck out my tongue again. Daroach gave me a warning look and I stopped.

"Are you going to tell me?" I asked him. There was a long silence. Finally, Meta Knight got so fed up with Daroach that he decided to say something.

"Do you know what kind of goods he steals?" he asked, cool and knowing.

"Artisan crafts. Aniram's making," I answered.

"Good," his voice was oddly pleasant, "what else?"

"Nothing else,"

"Good," he said again, "How much money does he make from his thefts?"

"None – he doesn't sell,"

"Good," he mused to himself, before asking, "now do you know why he only steals crafts made by Aniram and never sells them?" I shook my head, now. Meta Knight wasn't looking at me, but judging by the silence he received, he figured that I didn't know.

"Daroach?" Meta Knight asked coolly, "Do you care to enlighten us? I can only assume that you steal Aniram crafts for such an exhilarating prize..."

"What do you mean, 'exhilarating prize'?'" I was quick to ask. Meta Knight fired back a question.

"Do you know who made the necklace?"

I truly didn't know. However, as I thought about Meta Knight's previous questions, I could make a highly educated guess as to who made the necklace.

"Aniram?"

"Very good," he said, before continuing, "Now, the necklace has only been described as an 'ultimate power', for very few people who have actually seen the necklace has survived to tell the tale; therefore, not many people actually know that this ultimate power is a necklace. All they know it's made by Aniram,"

"So," I was quickly catching on, "Daroach steals all those things because he wants the necklace?"

"No," said Daroach, startling me. His voice was so firm and cold that it even made Meta Knight stop and turn around.

"Then why else?" the knight asked curtly. Daroach shook his head, ignoring him. He instead turned to me.

"Pikachu," he said quietly, "I believe that, if anyone, you deserve to hear the truth," I blinked, and cocked my head, confused.

"Why?" I asked him. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"You have no idea how deeply you are tied into this,"

He's right. I really have no idea. I can't think of any way. I was about to say something, but Daroach gave me a look that pleaded for silence before he continued.

"It was approaching Aniram's and his wife's anniversary when he decided to create the necklace. Relations were becoming strained at that point, so he wanted to create the most beautiful necklace to please her. Legends told of bright, golden stones that glowed magnificently, so he obtained some – who knows how, but he did. And he cut them and fashioned them onto a necklace."

"When the day of his anniversary came, he presented it to his wife, who was pregnant at the time. The moment she picked it up, she started to scream and then fell over unconscious. Little did Aniram know that it was the golden stones that had caused her to faint,"

"Those stones," Meta Knight interrupted to further explain to me, "are the very essence of power. It's the material form of leftover energy and force after a world is created. Aniram must have been incredibly lucky to escape with his life after all that contact," I ignored him. Instead, I was worried about Aniram's wife.

"What happened to the wife?" I asked Daroach. The gray rat snorted.

"Nothing. She was asleep for several days, but nothing else happened to her. I suppose it was her unborn children that saved her – they must have absorbed enough energy from the contact to keep the power balance in check. Afraid of what he had done, Aniram fled his family and vanished from society. When his wife woke up, she cast away the necklace, and soon the world was threatened by an ultimate power. Fortunately, someone had found it, and stored it away while power-hungry fools tried to take it for themselves,"

"Interesting," mused Meta Knight, interrupting again, "but how can you be so sure that your tale is accurate?" Daroach, for the first time in a while, smirked.

"Easy," he answered lightly, "Aniram is my father. I am a sole witness," Both Meta Knight and I were stunned, but unlike Meta Knight - who was shut up sorely by Daroach - I was overflowing my brim with questions.

"Why were you looking for the necklace, then?" I spouted. Daroach smiled.

"I never was," he said, "I stole all of my dad's goods because I felt like I can fool somebody into thinking that I had stolen the 'ultimate power'. I also had planned to make a replica of the necklace and place it in my stash to further deter a greedy seeker. I even had Doc create synthetic stones to look just like the stones on the real necklace. However, I lost my father's sketches – misplaced them, more like – so the replica never became a reality. But, I believe I still have fooled some people," Daroach leered at Meta Knight with a smug grin. Meta Knight glared coldly back. Meanwhile, I was aside myself, wowed by Daroach's cunning. Boo-yah Meta Knight!

"Why did you decide to do this?" I asked the gray leader. As soon as the question left my mouth, Daroach stopped smirking and frowned. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

_"That_, I believe, can wait," was his short reply. I was temporarily taken aback and somewhat disappointed. But I guess that's okay – I have another question.

"Hey, where did I come in?" I asked, realizing that I haven't been tied into the story yet. Daroach chuckled and tapped my nose gently with a long claw.

"AND what happened to you?" I asked, now minding the sudden change in personality. Daroach laughed again, and then more seriously said,

"The unborn children inside my mother had absorbed much power from her contact with the necklace. Unfortunately, my brothers and sisters died a few days after they were born because of it,"

"And you are laughing at that?" I gasped. Daroach shook his head.

"No," he answered, "just happy that there was one child strong enough to absorb her share of the energy and survive. That turned a regular, baby rat into a..." His voice trailed off and he smiled at me. My eyes widened suddenly realizing what he really meant.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes,"

"Who the heck named you 'Daroach'?" My older brother suddenly blushed and used a free paw to tug at his hat.

"Ah... My real name isn't Daroach. Mom named me - "

Suddenly, there was a sharp, whistling sound followed by a _bang!_ All three of us looked into the sky to see a stream of red fume, with a star-like burst at the top, like a dandelion. Meta Knight gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and Daroach pulled out his scepter from behind him.

"That must be Kirby," I shouted, and pointed in the direction we needed to take, "Let's go!"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The monster was now trying to make its escape, to chase after its desired prize. But Ike would not let that happen. He had corralled the demon away from the school, and at the edge of a forest. Both demon and warrior were injured: one of the monster's arms had been hacked away by Ike's lopping blows and the other fractured, ribs broken inwards, the sharp tip of the tail snapped off; one of Ike's thighs had been pierced by the monster's fangs that left deep holes in his flesh, his chest suffered from long, deep scars made by claws. However, they still fought, seemingly unflinching, striking back and forth. Ike now jumped onto the retreating back of the monster and began attacking the vertebrae column. There was a shriek and the monster flipped over suddenly, causing Ike to stumble off of it. Regaining his balance, he didn't look up fast enough to see the skeletal tail swinging in. It slammed painfully into his side, and there was a _crack! _A searing, stinging sensation shot up his arm immediately and seemed to explode at his elbow. He fell on his side into the grass from the sheer momentum, landing on his throbbing leg. Anticipating another attack, his hand closed around -

Nothing. Where was Ragnell? He turned his head slightly to see that it had been knocked aside, a little farther than arm's reach. Aw shit. He stretched out his arm as far as he could, but his fingers could only grasp onto grass. There was a hiss from behind him. Quickly, he rolled to the side, grabbing Ragnell, as the monster lunged down. The skeleton went rigid as it slammed into the ground, and Ike got to his feet. He held his great sword in two hands. Suddenly, pain shot up his left arm, stinging as though someone tried to shove a double-edged, electrified saw through his bone and succeeded. He grimaced slightly.

Shit. His arm was broken. He let go with his left hand, removing the weight from it. He thought of his next move as the monster removed its face from the ground. There was a menacing hiss that shook the leathery skin around the monster's neck.

"I'm ready, you bastard," Ike replied darkly, spreading his feet in a firm, defensive position. The beast raised its head, shaking it from side to side slightly, and snarled. Instead of lunging, as it usually did, it was coiled tensely, watching Ike warily through nonexistent eyes. Its white and silver shocks of hair bristled angrily and a low growl escaped from its dark, dark throat. Without warning, it swung around, and darted in the direction of the forest.

"Oh no you don't!" Ike broke out into a run after it, attempting to cut it off before it could slip away. But the monster was incredibly fast, and Ike knew he was never a good runner. And damn that leg. His right thigh throbbed every time his corresponding foot hit the ground. The demon was about to break the treeline between the open and the thickness of foilage when it suddenly halted in its tracks, rising into an upright position, hissing in obvious irritation. Momentarily confused, Ike stopped and watched. From inside the dark of the forest, almost right in front of the anxious beast, came a flash. Underbrush rustled, and a dark figure flashed by, cutting upwards in its path. It struck the demon's jaw, a blur by its velocity, and caused the demon to be thrown far backwards from the momentum, completely lifting its entire body from the ground. It crashed back to earth, its many bones rattling. As for the dark figure – it had vanished from sight.

Recovering his senses, Ike made for the downed beast. He readied his sword in his right hand, gritting his teeth to numb out the pain in his arm and leg. He was approaching quickly when the monster rose from the ground, shrieking.

"GET DOWN!" there was a voice from behind him, somewhere in the sky. Surprised, Ike stopped suddenly, skidding in grass. From over his head, he felt extreme heat and the sound of crackling and roaring approached. Just in the nick of time, Ike ducked as a brightly burning, fiery crescent rocketed overhead and exploded right inside the chest cavity of the demon. Almost immediately, the terrifying beast was engulfed by hungry flames, shrieking with the voices of a thousand banshees. It flailed about, squirming in the grass, trying to roll out the flames. However, the midnight dew offered no help. Seeing that it was failing in its attempts, the flaming demon rounded on Ike and roared, a great bellow which rose into a high-pitched scream. It lunged.

Ike, caught by surprise, thrusted his sword forwards. The darkness of the monster's throat quickly swallowed the blade, so far was Ragnell plunged into the monster that the hilt rang as it came into harsh contact with the long fangs. The air was split as the demon shrieked again, long wails accompanied by a chilling death throttle. Hot, dry air and flames licked at Ike's face, but Ike held firm. With a vengeance, Ike sharply twisted his blade inside the demon's dark throat. Another shriek, which was immediately followed by a violent shudder that rattled the skeleton.

And then silence, except for the crackle of fire hungrily eating at the oxygen in the air. Ike held firm, watching flames spew from the mouth.

Without warning, there came another slight tremor from the body, and then -

_** BOOM!**_ There was an explosion of blinding light and scorching heat and Ike let go of his sword. He fell backwards as force surged from the epicenter and outwards, the sound loud enough to deafen the sounds of bone shattering. Smoke, embers, and flames, being violently pushed outwards, formed a ring of smoldering, thermal energy over his head.

Ike laid face down in the grass. He breathed, the air in the vegetation now smelling very much like scorched earth. Blinking, the warrior slowly recovered from the shock. Gradually, the immense pain set in on him: his left arm was broken at the elbow somewhere, his other completely shattered, his right thigh pierced deeply by fangs, his chest torn open by claws, and to top it off, his skin was burned. Ike couldn't tell how badly, but it all just felt like hell. He never expected such potency from a shriveled, human-snake hybrid skeleton.

Oh, this was so fucked up.

There was the flap of wings, and the rustling of grass as something landed.

"You've got some real guts to take on that beastie alone, you know," came a voice from over him, nearby his head. Mercifully, someone was here. Ike seriously thought he was a dead man. But... With so much obtainable power out, was this guy over him friend or foe?

"You're not as badly burned as I thought..." the mysterious man, by the sound of it, muttered, "I'm real sorry about that – didn't expect so much bang. But, your clothes are just singed and -" There was a sudden, sharp pain that distinguished itself from the constant throb. There was silence for a moment.

"Looks like you're gonna need another set of armory," the voice finally said. The grass rustled again, and there was a soft flutter of light fabric. Glass clinking. A _fwoosh_ as a small fire was lit. Ike suddenly smelled something funny. It was another short while before the mysterious man spoke again.

"That's Ragnell, isn't it?"

"Yes," Ike manage to croak out. Glass clinks.

"Okay," he said, "I'm going to turn you over," Ike didn't object. Much to his surprise, the mysterious man's arms weren't very long. In fact, they were very short for a human. And, when he was delicately flipped over, he couldn't see anyone. Maybe this guy wasn't human. A wave of fog washed over Ike's eyes as a wave of pain ebbed through his body. His head pounded.

"You're Ike, aren't you?" said the voice. Startled, Ike attempted to sit up to look at this guy in the face. His chest wounds screamed.

"Don't try," the voice said sternly. Ike relaxed.

"How do you know my name?" he asked, wondering how. He didn't recognize that voice from anywhere. Glass clinks.

"Dude, that's a holy sword you have there – your name will not go unnoticed for long in the knight's realm," the voice answered with a chuckle, "News like that travels across dimensional boundaries, you know," Glass clinks. Ike thought for a moment.

"Then you are a swordsman," he reasoned.

"Yes,"

"Don't I need medical attention?" Ike's voice was reducing to a harsh whisper.

"You have medical attention right here," Glass clinks. Ike thought of Pikachu and Kirby. Where were they? For sure, there will be more enemies out and about. But, he guessed that his job was done. Maybe this guy will help them out. Ike was about to open his mouth and say something about it, but it seemed that this guy was one step ahead of him.

"You know why I'm here," the voice said.

"Yes," Ike answered, "I hope your intentions are for selfless action,"

"They are," The voice was now completely and deadly serious, no relaxed pillowing to it. Hard and firm – like a blade. Ike immediately knew that he was in good hands.

"The necklace is with... With a small, pink puffball called Kirby... As far as I know," Ike coughed. He felt that he was soon going to pass out. Glass clinked sharply.

"Kirby?" there was silence for a moment, and then the voice continued, "Okay – we'll go find him in about half an hour," Glass clinked. There was a sound of a small fire fizzling. Ike couldn't make sense of this. BOTH of his arms were useless. He couldn't even use his fists. He had a good leg, but what could that possibly do?

"I can't go on," he gasped, "My arms are broken," There was a sharp exhale.

"So?" the voice snorted indignantly.

"My arms are broken..."

"Yes, I know. Your elbow is broken – I suspect your bone has been split at the coronoid fossa. Your right is fractured into five pieces from radius and ulna to the epiphyseal line. You have five scars on your chest, at the most half-an-inch deep. Nothing is all too tragic. The wounds on your right thigh is what I'm more worried about, frankly."

"Do you use magic?" Ike's vision was beginning to black out at the edges.

"No," the voice answered, "but I use some pretty insane plant material and lost healing technique... Do you like tomatoes?"

"Not really..." Ike mumbled.

"Too bad," the voice said sternly, and something cool and wet was forced into his mouth. It's moisture was so incredibly delicious, and its taste was heavenly to him. Ike managed to swallow.

"Awesome – here's some more," Ike gratefully received it. Inside him, it was as if a sudden, peaceful feeling flooded, like a cool stream of water over sunbaked land. The tips of his fingers and toes tingled. He felt light. Meanwhile, glass clinked.

"Okay... Not too bad. Maybe it won't hurt for you to eat another -" He was cut off by a sudden, whistling, screaming noise in the distance. From the corner of his vision, Ike saw a red puff of fumes, and scarlet comets rain down from it like a long-petaled flower.

"We don't have enough time..." the voice muttered, concerned, "Here – eat all of this," A round, full object was stuck into his mouth. It had a smooth skin that easily split under his teeth. Again, the rejuvenating sensation flooded his entire body. Ike managed to choke the soft tomato down with a satisfied "ah!" He turned his head to the direction of the voice and, for the first time, looked upon his savior. There was a stubby hand, lacking fingers, gloved in white, holding onto a pair of metallic tonsils. In the tonsils was something that reminded Ike of a piece of chalk, except that this was lit with green fire. The eerie light shone upon a smooth surface of metal, interrupted by a v-shaped slit set at a greatly, obtuse angle. Underneath it was a plane of complete darkness. Ike's stomach jumped.

"You're -"

"Shut up – I need to concentrate," With a shake, the short, dark knight shook off a glove. Carefully, he placed the white, green-flaming substance onto his bare, navy blue hand. With his other hand free, he placed the tonsils next to several, empty lightbulbs – which were missing their bases that held the filaments – and shook off his white glove. Still flaming, the white substance was rubbed all over the hands. Ike's stomach jumped again. In that plane of darkness, framed by the v-shaped slit, two golden orbs suddenly lit up.

"Chill," The knight told him calmly, his hands lit with delicate, green flame, "You can thank me later when your arms are all good. Just sit tight now." Ike couldn't help but feel astonished and extremely surprised. There had been slight and faint rumors about such a knight like this one, but Ike never thought that their paths would cross anytime soon, if at all. It was stupendous and all to meet a famous swordsman, but it only meant one thing. Ike was grim, thinking of a peculiar prophecy he stumbled upon before making the trans-dimensional crossing into this world. How much longer do they all have before then?

No. He had to be in the present. Focus on the now. The earth will have to turn hundreds of times before then. Keeping a strong composure, Ike once more met the golden gaze of the two keen eyes that peered sharply from behind the metallic mask. Those rumors he have heard spoke of a knight... One with a sacred blade and a cape said to have been made by the very fabric of dimensions. His face goes unseen – only his sharp eyes shine from the dark of his mask. Ike was very sure that this was that very same guy.

"You're Meta Knight, aren't you?"

* * *

**Had to split up this chapter yet again. Sorry for the delay. **

**Since this was intended to be written in the last chapter, but I have failed, I dubbed this "Chapter Thirty". Hope it was okay. I messed up on the ending. **

**Things are going pretty slow on my end, so bear with me.**

**And as for the reviews for last chapter? I have read them, but I didn't have time to reply to them at all. I'm really sorry that I couldn't answer back to you guys, but I honestly do and always will appreciate your support. Thank you.  
**


End file.
